5 Days of Manding Mastery

Abstract The “5 Days to Manding Mastery” course, created by Matt Harrington and presented by the Behaviorist Book Club, is a practical, research-informed training designed to help behavior analysts and practitioners enhance their understanding and implementation of mand training. The course addresses common challenges faced in early intervention and verbal behavior programs, particularly the tendency to implement mand training without adequate consideration of prerequisites, modality selection, or programming sequence. Over five sessions, participants explore foundational concepts such as prerequisite assessments, efficient prompting strategies, programming order, and generalization techniques. The course also introduces strategies for extending basic manding to more complex skills, such as manding for information and integrating functional communication training (FCT) to reduce problem behavior. It blends research findings with real-world clinical examples, offering a structured but flexible path to more effective, individualized communication programming.