Presenter: Welcome to the Tri-State Webinar Series.
Communication: A Vital Tool to Build Student Success.
Part two, Tracking Mand Data.
Meggin: I'm Meggin Funk, Western Region Coordinator
for the Nebraska ASD Network.
Ashley: And I'm Ashley Meyer, a Behavior Specialist
for the Nebraska ASD Network.
Meggin: In part two of this webinar, you will learn
how to identify obtainable, functional manding goals
for individual students,
understand how to develop the cold probe
and skill tracking sheets with the mastered,
current, and future mands.
And finally, you will learn how to track manding progress
using frequency and acquisition data and graphs.
Ashley: Let's do a quick review of mand basics.
Mand can also be referred to as a request demand, command,
questioning, or inquiring for information, etc.
The mand is the only verbal operate
that directly benefits the speaker.
The basic principal of the mand is want it, say it, get it.
So the speaker gets what he or she wants.
Mand training relies on the use
of the learners interest's and motivation.
Mand training is clearly a functional skill
by helping the student learn to communicate
to have their wants and needs met.
Mand skills typically develop early in children,
so it should naturally be a part of early language training.
Meggin: Mand training guidelines.
Be sure to have a variety of reinforcers available
across many categories, as we discussed
in part one of the webinar.
Sensory, edibles, tangibles, social, etc.
Target items will be presented with prompts
and then the prompt will be faded
in the transition trial throughout the sessions.
For mastered items, there is no prompting.
The item is presented to let the student know
that it's available to them,
and then a timed delay is allowed for them
to mand for the wanted item, independently.
If necessary, an error correction can be completed.
For future targets, we have items that are valuable
to the student, but not yet mastered or targeted.
We aren't working specifically on the future items,
so we don't prompt, we simply deliver,
and say the name of the item or pair the response form.
We want to continue to expose our students to novel items
to build up our future targets that may be valuable
to them, so they will be motivated to mand for them
in the future.
And remember, to make sure to run numerous easy trials
to keep the student successful and wanting to work with us.
Meggin: Remember, working with us is fun,
because we are keeping the 80/20 rule.
Ashley: We can determine goals for our mand training
in various ways.
In fact, we don't want to rely on a single item.
We want to develop a well-rounded set of goals.
We can use assessments, such as the VB-MAPP, ABLLS-R,
AFLS, or Essentials for Living.
We can look at the assessments completed by specialists
working with the student, such as SLPs, OTs, PTs, etc.
We can do observations of the student within their natural
environment to see what skills they need
to complete on a daily basis.
We also want to know what needs or concerns the family have
regarding the student's manding skills.
Always keep these goals individualized and functional.
We should be working on teaching meaningful mands
that are going to help the student
get their individual wants and needs met.
Meggin: What do you think?
Please share in the chat box.
Think of a target student of yours
who needs to work on manding.
What are some methods that you have used or will use
to gather information to determine manding goals?
Ashley: We hit a little on this topic
during part one of this webinar series.
When we are creating individualized goals for our students,
we want to make sure they are specific, clearly defined,
so absolutely any one who reads the goal
would know exactly what is expected of the student.
The goal must be measurable,
so we are able to track the data
to continue to help our students make progress.
The goal must also be attainable for that student.
We want to see our students succeed,
so make sure the goal is truly attainable by that student.
The goal must be relevant to the student,
and truly individualized.
Closely connected and appropriate to that students life.
Goals also need to be time-bound.
We want to know exactly how long the student
will be expected to achieve the measurable portion
so we can determine that we need to work
on a new target skill or make edits to the current target.
An example would be a team choosing that a student would
achieve a goal for three consecutive days
or possibly five consecutive days
before it would be considered mastered.
Meggin: Let's take a look at some
student-specific mand goals.
We have examples from the ABLLS-R and VB-MAPP.
The examples that we will share are broken down
into early learner, intermediate learner,
an advanced learner in the ABLLS-R
or levels one, two, and three on the VB-MAPP.
Please understand that these are just examples
that we will share.
We know that you have done very specific assessments
to make certain that the goals that you create
for your student will be functional
and personalized to their needs.
The mands you choose to target will be items
that your student is absolutely motivated
to gain access to.
Ashley: For the VB-MAPP
or Verbal Behavior Mile Stones Assessment
and Placement Program,
these are some sample level one mand goals.
Remember, these are only examples.
First, we have one that lists that the child
will emit at least five different mands with verbal prompts.
So for instance, asking the child, What do you want?,
but without physical, echoic, or imitative prompts
measured by cold probe frequency data
across three consecutive mand frequency sessions.
In this second goal example,
we see that that has been increased
from five to 10 different mands.
These goals are written to be specific, measurable,
attainable, relevant to the individual student,
and have time criteria.
Meggin: You will notice within these level one examples,
that initially they were working on prompted mands,
and then moved to unprompted.
And now, we see some examples of spontaneous mands.
So within level one, we are pushing the student
towards independence.
We aren't just focused on getting
hundreds of prompted mands.
We always want to choose to push our students toward
that spontaneous mand that gets them access
to what they want without being prompted.
Ashley: If you are using the ABLLS-R
or Assessment of Basic Language
and Learning skills Revised
as your assessment for creating your learner's goals,
then these are what some example mand goals
for early learners might look like.
Again, these are just samples.
So make that you use your own assessment data,
and right goals that are specific to your students' needs.
You will notice the letter and number
that coordinates with the goal off to the left.
In the first example,
we are looking at category F skilled one.
So the student would look toward the listener
when asking a person for items, actions, or information.
At least 80% of opportunities
across five consecutive observations by a specific date.
These will get increasingly more complex
as you move up higher in the skill numbers.
Meggin: Now we see level two examples for the VB-MAPP.
We left off on level one with the student
pushing into spontaneous mands.
So now we want to continue to grow the number
of spontaneous mands for items, and/or actions
within their natural environment.
Again, the phrase, Natural Environment
helps us to remember that these goals are individualized
to our student, because one student's environment
in a preschool maybe very different than that
of a student in an elementary classroom.
In the second example, we move the student
out of just items and actions to individuals or people.
I love this goal!
So often, our students demonstrate unexpected behavior
that is attention seeking.
So this single goal could have an amazing impact
on your student using appropriate behavior
to gain attention.
And then finally, we have a goal
that bumps up the complexity of a single word
to a three word sentence.
Your student may need another goal
before this three word sentence goal,
which might bump them up
to just a two word phrase.
Your team knows your student best.
So just keep your student moving up in complexity,
and keep them successful, and having fun.
Ashley: Here are some example mand goals
for intermediate learners.
These are looking at category F,
skills 10 through 20 in the ABLLS-R.
F-10 goes through a goal on a student learning to indicate
whether he or she wants something by saying yes or no
or shaking their head yes or no
when presented with the item.
With at least 80% accuracy across four out of five
data collection days by a specific date.
You will see again, as we go higher up in skill number
the skills get a little bit more complex each time.
Looking down at F-12, we would recommend wording goals
using a positive tone of telling what the student
will do rather than what they won't do.
So you might want to restate this one
to say that they will ask for help
using appropriate behavior,
rather than without problem behaviors.
Meggin: For level three of the VB-MAPP,
we continue to see the complexity of the manding goals grow.
We are now teaching the student to mand for information,
specifically using four question words.
We would have had some level one and two goals previously
that have taught
and prepared the student to use question words.
Then the student works towards getting others
to attend to them, and now they are holding attention.
And finally, with the last example for the student,
we see them describing how to do things,
and sharing information to help others.
Ashley: Here are the ABLLS-R example mand goals
for advanced learners.
Category F, skills 21 through 29
would be considered advanced learners.
F-21 reviews how a student will spontaneously
request information by asking questions containing
who or whose in 10 consecutive none training situations.
So we're looking at a much more complex skill here,
where the student needs to ask for information using,
who or Whose in new situations.
Not during that one-on-one teaching time.
So we're looking for them to spontaneously request
or request when the item or activity is not in their
immediate environment for them to see
while they mand for it.
That is a much more advanced skill.
Meggin: Share in the chat box.
What level do you think your target student
is at with manding?
Are they an early learner?
Are they more intermediate?
Or are they advanced?
Ashley: Skills tracking sheets help us to track progress.
You see in the left-hand column,
the number of target skills,
and beside each number is the specific target.
In the third column,
we have the date the target is introduced,
and then finally, the date that the target
is mastered in the last column.
If we look at number one,
we see the mand target was popcorn.
The student must have been very motivated
to receive popcorn.
So we introduced this mand on 1-6,
and this mand was mastered on 1-20.
You will notice that this team chose
to implement four target mands on 1-6.
They chose popcorn, jump, dino puzzle, and juice.
This is perfect, because we want to have
two to five active targets at all times.
And then you can have as many future targets
on your sheet that you'd like.
Make sure to have a couple future targets ready to go,
so that you're always ready to implement new targets
when the current ones get mastered.
Meggin: we have two types of manding data to cold probe.
Acquisition and frequency.
Acquisition is the count of total mands,
and the frequency is mands per minute.
During the cold probe, we probe for motivation
of each target mand, and we probe for the response.
During frequency, we choose a set amount of time
for the total manding session,
and then document the number of mands
prompted, unprompted, or spontaneous.
Let's look at a couple of examples.
Ashley: On the cold probe data sheet for acquisition,
we take data on the student's current target mands
or the items that they are working on errorlessly.
You will notice on the far left column,
this students target mands include car, light up ball,
sour candy, and bubbles.
Remember, we only work on two to five targets at a time.
In the next column, we put a V for vocal.
This is the response form that the student
uses to communicate.
There is an arrow down drawn through the rest
of the targets, just to save time.
In the next column, we have an I.
This lets us know that the student's target mands
are present in the environment.
They have the items there.
If there was an S, the student would be working
on spontaneous mands or mands where the items
are not right in front of them.
The fourth column is for prior number of yes's.
This is a weekly sheet, so the prior yes looks at
how many consecutive times the student accurately manded
for that item in the previous week.
In this example, they had two previous yes's for car,
zero for light up ball, one for sour candy,
and one for bubbles.
The center column is to label the data
that we are collecting.
It directs us with an arrow to the columns
to the right to answer the questions.
Was there motivation or MO?
And if there was motivation,
did the child emit the correct response for manding?
When we are checking for motivation,
we are seeing if the learner is looking at the item,
smiling at it, trying to reach towards it,
and that shows us that they are motivated for it.
On Monday, the student demonstrated motivation
for the car,
so we circle MO, and then the child said, "Car,"
so we circled Y for yes.
They did emit the correct mand response.
Since the child had two previous yes's,
they mastered this target mand today.
We checked for motivation for the ball,
but the student didn't demonstrate motivation,
so we just circled no MO.
As we discussed in part one of this series,
a mand requires motivation, so we cannot check
on the second part for the response, in this case,
because there was no motivation.
Next, we have sour candy.
We checked for motivation.
There is motivation, so we circled MO,
and then the student did correctly mand for candy,
so we circled Y for yes.
We then check for motivation of bubbles,
and the student is motivated, so we circle MO,
but for bubbles, the student errored on this mand.
So we circle N.
At the end of the session, we can see that the student
has mastered the target mand car,
so we lined through the remainder of the week,
and add a new target mand, farm book.
We put a slash through Monday,
because we did not probe this item until Tuesday.
You will work the remaining time
during each day after cold probe data
on using errorless teaching
to teach the learner how to mand.
Each time that the student meets mastery criteria,
which in this case is three consecutive yes's in a row,
then we will highlight or line through the rest of that row,
and introduce a new target in its place.
Meggin: At the end of the day Friday,
we use our cold probe data sheet to create
a new data sheet for the following week.
You will see the items in the left column,
are light up ball, farm book, marble run,
and dump truck.
Again, we have V for vocal,
I for the item being present in the environment,
and we pull our previous yes's over.
Light up ball and farm book both have two accurate
consecutive yes's, and then marble run,
and dump truck have zero previous yes's.
Ashley: Mand frequency data.
We are going to conduct timed manding sessions
to collect frequency data each day or for the entire day
if you have a learner who emits very few mands,
say, 10 or less per day,
then you could take frequency data for the whole day.
Remember to check for motivation,
because mands require motivation.
Count all the mands that were produced by this student.
This includes target one's that we are currently working on,
and free ones or one's that we are not actively
using errorless teaching for.
Record the mands based on the type.
There are three types.
Prompted, unprompted, and spontaneous.
If your sessions are different lengths,
then convert it to rate,
so you're going to take frequency over time.
Your sessions should be short in length.
Anywhere from a couple of minutes
up to maybe 20 or 30 minutes at a time.
Meggin: This is the cold probe data sheet for frequency.
This form is used to take data on amount of time,
how many mands, the type of mands,
and then the rate of mands.
Frequency manding sessions can be very brief.
We want to be cautious of not pushing our learners
too hard and causing problem behavior.
So it's recommended to do more frequent shorter sessions,
instead of longer infrequent sessions.
Social interactions in communication
can often be difficult for our students,
so we are making sure to keep the sessions fun.
Now we move on to our three types of mands.
We have prompted, unprompted, and spontaneous.
So our prompted require us to give the response form
after the student has demonstrated motivation for the item.
The unprompted are requests that the student
makes for the item independently.
Spontaneous might be item within the natural environment
that the student spontaneously requests,
so to hold a session, we would have items made available
to the student out on a table,
but we remain in control of those items.
For our first session, we hold the session for 10 minutes.
The teacher can prompt mands if the student
is reaching towards or showing motivation for the item
or the student might just mand for an item.
In which case, they receive that item,
and then data is kept on the number of times
the student mands prompted,
mands unprompted, or spontaneously.
We now take our number of mands over minutes,
so we had ten prompted mands across 10 minutes
or over 10 minutes, which equals one.
Then for unprompted mands,
we have four over 10 minutes equals point four.
In spontaneous mands, we had one over the 10 minutes,
equals point one.
We take cold probe data one time per day, every day.
So you'll see on this sheet that we took cold probe data
on February third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh.
After cold probe data is taken,
we then teach manding sessions multiple times
through out the day.
Ashley: When graphing mand data,
there are two different graph.
The mastered mands or acquisition
of the target mands are graphed daily.
On this graph, we see the total number of mastered mands
in a cumulative fashion.
The second graph is the frequency of mands per minute.
This is also graphed daily.
On the graph, we see the total number
of each type of mand per minute prompted and unprompted.
For this graph, you can round up or down
as needed for fractions.
Let's take a look at some examples of each.
Meggin: In this manding acquisition graph,
you can see that John has moved from the previous week
of having four mands to having five mands,
because he mastered the goal on Monday.
And then we maintain at five mands
through the fifth of February.
And on the sixth, John mastered two different mands.
So we see the single data point on the sixth of February
move up to seven mands.
Ashley: In this cumulative graph for mand frequency,
we are looking at February third through the seventh again,
but these are the numbers of unprompted
and prompted mands per session.
So we took our rate, which is frequency over time
for each session, and we simply put a dot on the graph
for the average amount of times that the student manded
using prompts, and the average number of times they manded
without needing prompts.
The goal here is for us to see the number of prompted mands
decreasing while the number of unprompted mands
or independent mands increases.
Meggin: In part two of this webinar,
you've learned how to identify obtainable,
functional manding goals for individual students,
how to develop cold probe and skilled tracking sheets
with individualized mastered, current, and future mands,
and how to track manding progress using frequency
and acquisition data and graphs.
Ashley: What do you think?
What is one big takeaway that could help your students?
Thank you for viewing this presentation.
Meggin: We appreciate the time that you've invested
in these manding webinars
to ensure that each of your students
are growing their functional communication skills.