Requests and CMO-Ts: What are they?
Friday 28th February 2025
Written by Veronica Dunning, UKBA (Cert.), BCBA, QBA, CEO & Clinical Director
Requests and CMO-Ts: What are they?
CMO-Ts are very important in supporting people to expands their communication.
Think about something you really want. Let's say: juice.
You really want this juice and you're prepared to ask for it until you get it!
Think that in order to get to actually drink the juice you will need to ask someone for it.
That's where the parent/tutor or adult helper comes in with helping a child expand their requests opportunities.
Now, what does the acronym CMO-T stand for?
It stands for Transitive Conditioned Motivating Operation. CMO-Ts in place will temporarily increase the value of any stimulus (items) that will lead to you obtaining a preferred item. It's usually in place as part of a chain, making items reinforcing when they normally wouldn't necessarily be motivating on their own, leading the speaker to get what they want.
Following on from the above example, if the juice is in the fridge and you can't get it, you will ask someone to open the fridge, get the bottle, open the lid, pour the juice, etc.
You get to drink the juice after you ask for these things and they become temporarily valuable!
Adding CMO-Ts into a chain is a very good way to increase a learner's requests repertoire when they can already ask for something they want, but remember to balance it, considering people's waiting skills, and that some learners need reinforcement to be more immediate.
Remember also that if something is too hard to get, the effort might not be worth it.
Keep assessing motivation as you throw in your CMO-Ts!
