POWER: A Caregiver Implemented Mand Training Intervention

The development of a vocal mand repertoire is often delayed or deficient in children with an autism spectrum disorder. Utilizing caregivers as behavior change agents to address this core deficit may be advantageous as more learning opportunities can be incorporated in daily routines. A plethora of literature exists on teaching caregivers to promote communication with their children; however, many of these studies use behavioral skills training that can be resource-intensive. This study evaluated the effectiveness of video modeling with voice-over and on-screen text, without researcher mediation, as an alternative to behavioral skills training for teaching caregivers to teach vocal mands to their 2- to 5-year-old children with an autism spectrum disorder. The video model described mand training with an echoic prompt (Greer & Ross, 2008; Kodak & Clements, 2009), using a mnemonic (POWER: Play, Offer, Wait, Encourage, and Reinforce). Results of our nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across three dyads indicates that video modeling was effective in increasing all three caregivers' mand training fidelity, and this correlated to small increases in independent mands with some of the child participants when training occurred less than 1 hr per week. We discuss implications for practice and areas for future research.