Are You Planning for Generalization?

Generalization: A concept that is easily assumed to have occurred, but far more difficult to actually achieve than is typically thought. This is especially true when it comes to social and behavior skills. 

You may have a student who exhibits the skill or behavior in one setting, but not another. Maybe Tommy can perform the skill with Mr. Sam, but not with Mrs. Peterson. This can be especially true for our autistic students. Not all students have the natural ability to generalize a skill in all of these unique situations. Teaching social and behavior skills is never a one and done deal. True generalization of skills requires repeated teaching, practice, and reinforcement across settings/ situations, time, and people. 

“If we don’t plan for generalization of skills from the beginning, generalization of skills won’t happen!” 

The teach and hope method of teaching a skill and then ‘hoping’ the student gets it doesn’t work for academics. So, why would we assume it would work for teaching social and behavior skills? If we want a student to generalize and independently utilize a specific social or behavior skill, we need to be systematic in teaching and practicing that skill, just like when we teach academics. 

Let’s break down generalizing social and behavior skills into doable steps for you.

Step 1: Think long-term from the beginning

Identify you short- term goal for your student? For example, raise his hand to gain attention from staff. Next, identify your long-term goal for the student. For example, work independently on tasks without immediate adult proximity. Ok, so, two great goals. Now, consider what additional skills the student may need to learn in order to bridge the gap between the short-term goal and the long-term goal. In this case, the student may need to learn to wait, stay in his seat, and even work on some academic skills to increase his ability to complete work on his own. 

Step 2: Teach the skill for the short-term goal

This likely is your immediate replacement behavior and should be focused on first. Use a research-based methodology to teach the actual skill; we suggest Behavior Skills Training or Teaching Interactions. (See blog posts on this topic for more information)

Consider developing a hierarchy, a process of identifying when the student is most likely to be successful, sometimes successful, and never successful in using the desired skill. In our example of hand raising, perhaps the student is most successful in raising his hand in math as he is confident in that subject and never successful in reading since he is significantly below grade level in that subject. Developing a hierarchy will assist you in planning for generalization as you are identifying the individual people, settings, and/or times that you need to address when teaching and practicing.  

Step 3: Once the short-term goal is progressing, begin to teach the additional skills you identified.

 Again, use a research-based methodology to teach the skill(s) and develop a hierarchy to guide your instruction. Then, teach and practice to mastery. 

Step 4: Pair all of the teaching above with reinforcement

 Provide reinforcement, specific to the preference of the student, during teaching sessions and when the skill is used within the natural environment. This may be access to a tangible item/activity or it may simply be that the behavior is easy, efficient, and effective in meeting the student’s needs! All new skills should be set-up to be successfully used by effectively prompting (and likewise fading) as well as adjusting environmental responses to ensure the behavior or skill is paid-off! This is especially important when working to generalize skills across environments. So, be sure to communicate with other staff throughout the building (think PE, art, music, playground attendants, etc.) in regards to skills to prompt and reinforce!