Generalization~

Middle of the week thought:  Generalization

Wonderful Wednesday everyone! Even though it is summer, my teacher brain is not totally on vacation. How can it be?  Where I teach, we will start back to school in August and pre-planning will start in the end of July! Way earlier than when we were kids, but then again, it keeps their learning moving right along.

Summer is perhaps one of the best times of year for generalization of newly learned or already mastered skills. What do I mean by generalization?  It is when you take the skills out of the classroom and make sure the student is able to do the same skill with the same level of independence in other environments with other "instructors".  Parents, siblings, neighbors, grocery store clerks, grandparents, etc are all instructors. People your child comes across in the everyday environment serve as natural instructors. Learning a new skill for a child with ASD or any child is awesome. But if they can not do the same skill across settings, people, and different situations, it is not truly mastered. For example:  Your student/child can "point to a certain vegetable on a book page but upon going to the grocery store or seeing it in the pantry, the actual item does not get the same reaction and can not be recognized.

 Summer is the perfect opportunity to look at your child's IFSP, IEP, or goals you are working on at home, and head out to set that generalization mastery into action.  Take it slow. Going out for many with ASD is a challenge itself. For one of my closest friends, it means finding the same shoes, the same hair clip, the same favored object (of the moment), or they are not even going out the door. But a trip to the grocery store for hands on generalization is often a fun way to keep your child engaged. My son had an extreme phonological awareness issue when he was 2 due to reoccurring ear infections. I used to take a picture book to the store and he and I would match up the items to the pictures. Some of those veggies in open markets and whole food stores could get him giggling and the reinforcement he got from them were priceless. He is much older now and still remembers those "silly" trips, but he learned a lot without realizing it at the time. If going to the store is too much for now, take a trip to the veggie drawer in the fridge. That is generalization too :)

The key again is: start small.  Generalization can be done in many ways. The goal is that the new skill is mastered across people and settings.

What is your favorite way to help your child/student generalize a new skill?

Have a wonderful Wednesday!