| *** GENERALIZATION ***
Have you ever wondered why your child seems to do so many more things for the teachers at school than they are willing to do for you at home? Does your child use words with you, but stay quiet when Grandma comes to visit? These are examples of lack of generalization.
Generalization is the process whereby a learned skill is broadened or expanded to include demonstration of the skill using different materials, in a different environment, at a different time or with a different person than it was originally acquired. For example, if your child has learned the color green at school by looking at a green apple but they cannot also see that grass and leaves are green (while at school) or identify that apples are green (while at home), then their knowledge of the color has not been generalized to different materials or locations, and they really do not know the color green.
For kids on the autistic spectrum, generalization usually does not initially happen on its own. Rather, educators and parents must work together to systematically plan how to transfer skills from school to home and visa versa to extend the child's competencies as far as possible. If something is learned at school, but cannot be demonstrated in other environments with other people, then it has not been learned sufficiently. After all, if a child cannot perform the skill in the real world (outside of their classroom), what value is it to them? Parents must review their children's educational goals to make sure that generalization of each skill is included as a specific objective. Also, it is critical to maintain a continuous dialog with your childrens' therapists and teachers because if you do not know exactly what your child is learning in school, then you cannot generalize it to the home.
Parents need to constantly be aware of generalization opportunities, because moments to teach or practice existing skills happen all of the time outside of the classroom or scheduled therapies. For example, imagine you are in your kitchen having a snack with your child. If they are learning to identify objects (including fruit), you could hold up an apple and banana and have them point to the banana before you hand it over. If they are learning to label fruit at school, you could have them say the word "apple" before you hand it over. If they are learning colors, you could put a bunch of fruit in front of them and have them point to the yellow one (banana) or red one (apple). If they are learning counting, you could have them count raisins or the number of cabinets in the room.
What about a child learning to request objects using words? During that same snack, you could try giving them only 1 grape, withholding the rest, and forcing them to say "more" as you hand them over one at a time. Now imagine that you are not aware of the exact language your child is using in school to request things. You may hand over a grape in response to "more" without realizing that your child is saying "more please" or "I want more" at school. By accepting "more" alone, you would miss the opportunity to generalize the longer phrase and inadvertently teach your child that they do not have to make the same effort at home as they do in school to get the same results.
Please do not be overwhelmed with the thought of having to constantly generalize. You are not superhuman and cannot do it 24 hours a day. However, if you can fit it in for 10 minute spurts here and there, your child will be better off for it and will advance quicker. After all, the faster something is learned and generalized, the sooner they can go on to learn something else. Don't forget to involve other family members and friends in the generalization process. Your child needs to learn how to play games and engage in different activities in all the rooms in your house, in other locations and with other people. For example, if you are playing Candyland to practice color identification, counting and turn taking, bring the game to Grandma's house and let her play a few rounds as well.
AutismMaterials.com is filled with ideas of how to generalize skills in fun ways (such as by playing with toys, playing board games, doing art projects, etc.). It is our goal to make generalizing as enjoyable and automatic as possible. Look for our tips in the text boxes at the beginning of each category and/or next to specific items appearing on the site.
See also: Riddles and Scavenger Hunt Generalization
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Formal Research: Generalization
Generalization and Maintenance of Preschool Children's Social Skills: A Critical Review and Analysis
Generalization by Autistic-Type Children of Verbal Responses Across Settings
Acquisition, Generalization, and Maintenance of Question-Answering Skills in Autistic Children
Teaching Spontaneous Responses to Young Children With Autism
Generalization of Tacting Actions in Children with Autism
Establishing a Generalized Repertoire of Helping Behavior in Children with Autism
An Implicit Technology of Generalization
The Facilitative Effects of Incidental Teaching on Preposition Use by Autistic Children |
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