The main goal of a behavior modification is that when the intervention ends that the behavior change occurs outside of the environment. This refers to maintenance and generalization and the importance of programming these in a child’s BIP.
Generalization is the degree in which a change in a behavior will transfer to another setting or situation. Generalization does not happen spontaneously it must be planned.
Here are some important points to incorporate into the goals to encourage maintenance and generalization;
1. Teach behaviors in a natural setting.
2. Have many people train with the student.
3. Train in many settings.
4. Move from artificial controls (prompts, reinforcers) to natural reinforcers (praise, better grades).
5. Move from continuous to intermittent and from fixed to variable schedules.
6. Reinforce students when they are maintaining and generalizing the behavior.
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3 comments:
Working toward generalization of a behavior makes me think of how important it is to communicate as much as possible with our students' families. It seems that if the parents know what we are working on with the students then they can help a great deal with generalization. The parents and families of our students have the opportunity to see our students in a greater variety of setting than we ever will. If we become an effective team with our students' families then our students may be able to progress at a faster rate.
The comment about communicating with parents is really good. Especially to try to have the parents help with generalization. There are many behaviors that are learned in the school setting but are not reinforced out of school. There are some parents who would benefit a lot from simple training in behavior modification techniques. If the teachers and the parents were all on the same page on the process of shaping behaviors the generalization process would be so much smoother.
I cannot stress enough how important generalization is for our students. I work in a classroom with 8th and 9th graders and we practice money skills in the classroom until we are blue in the face. Still when we go out to the community to practice buying food at the grocery store (for example) most of the students cannot use their skills at the check out register. It is almost amazing how the skills don't transfer between the environment. I think community based instruction for the kids that I work with is SO important!
I am fortunate enough to also work for a family where another girl and myself take their 2 teenage sons with autism out in the community after school to practice these important skills. I think it is wonderful that these parents recongize the importance of real world learning situtations and the gains these boys have made in their community skills is tremendous!
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