Investigating Generalization Difficulties During Instruction in Language for Learning

Abstract

Language for Learning is a language curriculum that research supports as effective for teaching language skills to young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, most of this research has measured direct acquisition and it is unclear to what extent the skills taught in Language for Learning generalize beyond the context of the curriculum. Our purpose for this study was to evaluate the effects of Language for Learning for producing generalization of labeling skills of two children with ASD when implemented in public school classrooms by the participants’ teachers. We used a multiple probe design across language skills to investigate several types of generalization: to untrained visual stimuli, to novel sequences of instructions, and to novel instructors. Results indicate that Language for Learning was effective in producing generalization to untrained visual stimuli and to a novel instructor for one skill, but that responding was tightly controlled by the specific sequence of verbal instructions used within the curriculum for other skills. We discuss possible explanations for our findings as well as areas for future research.