Expanding the Concept of the Mand: Session 137 with Andy Bondy

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

I can't believe it's been over two years since Andy Bondy of PECS fame came on the show! How time flies...

This episode was inspired by a Facebook post Andy made a few weeks ago talking about how mand repertoires go beyond simply requesting preferred items. There were some interesting exchanges that followed Andy's post, and upon reading them, it occurred to me that this would make for a fun and educational podcast chat.

(IMAGE CREDIT J. MCANINCH)

So in this episode, we talk about what inspired Andy to write the post in the first place, and discuss teaching mand repertoires across a variety of contexts, many of them beyond requesting preferred items.

We also take some excellent questions that were generated by The Behavioral Observations Membership Group. Specifically, Andy gets asked about autoclitic frames, core versus fringe vocabulary, and why prompts - from Andy's perspective - are like knives (you'll have to listen to understand what this means).

Here are links to resources, etc... that we discussed:

• The Facebook post that spurred this conversation.
• The new extended edition of Verbal Behavior.
• The PECS USA homepage.
• Latest PECS research.
• Delaware Autism Program.
• Eve Skinner multi-part interview w/BF Skinner (YouTube).
• Andy's first appearance on BOP.
• An upcoming workshop from Andy on prompting, stimulus control, and error correction. (more workshops here).
• Schreibman and Stahmer (2014). Randomized control trial study comparing PECS and Pivotal Response Training.
• Charlop-Christy, et al., (2002). Using the picture exchange communication system (PECS) with children with autism: assessment of PECS acquisition, speech, social-communicative, and problem behavior.
• The BOP membership program.

This podcast is brought to you by:

• Gateway Learning Group, and their Autism Leadership Academy. Designed for new Regional Directors, the Autism Leadership Academy develops motivated BCBAs into successful leaders in the autism field. If you’re interested in running your own regional center and want to learn the skills to do so successfully, check out gatewaylg.com/BOP.
• Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their brand new 8-hour Supervision Course, as well as their RBT offerings over at behavioruniversity.com/observations.
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