Mand Chart

First: a mand is a request for something–a demand of sorts. 

This is a very big (almost primary) goal of Nolan’s Gray: with full prompting–they had to basically say, “Say ___” to get him to say anything. Blue: On his own he will spontaneously say what he wants or needs. Orange: They started giving him little hints…the first sound, of the word for example. AHH, his language went from basically he would not say anything with out someone telling him what to day (ex:  Teacher/Therapist: you want the door open, say open. Nolan: Open) to Nolan just walking to a door and saying open on his own (spontaneous). This chart shows in data that his language (spontaneous) is growing greatly.  We are noticing this at home as well! Another exciting part of seeing it at home, he is starting to have a preference.  It used to be he’d have key phrases that meant things we knew–Ex: Waffles meant he was hungry because it was a food he knew and could recall and Drink juice meant he was thirsty.  You could give him any food or any drink and he was happy.  Recently, I asked Nolan if he wanted cereal or waffles for breakfast and he told me “Fruit Loops!”  He said drink juice and I handed him milk and he handed it back and repeated drink juice!  This is HUGE for him!]]>