BA440 Unit 8 Generalization and Maintenance Paper Example

It Worked in the Kitchen and Nowhere Else: A BA440 Unit 8 Generalization and Maintenance Paper

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

BA440: Behavior Intervention

Unit 8 Generalization and Maintenance Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, the agency, the families and every figure are composite and illustrative; the articles and book cited are real.

A Skill in One Room

Mateo's plan for dinner-time tantrums had worked. By November, he asked "Mama, play" or tapped his picture card about twelve times while his mother cooked, and tantrums had nearly stopped. But his father reported that Mateo still cried and kicked when Dad was on the phone, and on a visit to his grandmother's apartment, he had a long tantrum while she cooked. At the grocery store, he dropped to the floor when his mother stopped to talk with a neighbor. He had learned to ask his mother, in his kitchen, while she cooked.

Generality, in Baer et al. (1968), is among the marks of applied behavior analysis: a behavior change is general if it lasts over time, appears in a range of environments or spreads to related behaviors. Mateo's change had not yet passed that test.

Train and Hope

Stokes and Baer (1977) reviewed the research on generalization and described the most common approach as "train and hope": teach a behavior and hope it generalizes, without planning for it. They argued that generalization should be programmed rather than expected, and they described a set of techniques for doing so. These included sequential modification, which means teaching in each setting where the behavior is needed; introducing the behavior to natural maintaining contingencies, so that the everyday environment reinforces it; training sufficient exemplars, enough examples that the behavior is not tied to one; training loosely, varying the conditions of teaching; using indiscriminable contingencies, so that the learner cannot tell when reinforcement will come; programming common stimuli, things present in both teaching and target settings; and mediating generalization, giving the learner a tool to carry from one setting to another.

We had trained Mateo with one person, in one room, at one time of day, and hoped.

The Plan for Mateo

My supervising behavior analyst and I wrote a generalization plan using several of these techniques.

Training sufficient exemplars meant teaching Mateo to ask several people. His father, grandmother and older cousin each practiced a short routine: while busy, they waited for Mateo to say "Papa, play" or "Abuela, play," and gave him their attention warmly for a moment when he did. We taught each adult over a week, and Mateo asked his father within three days.

Programming common stimuli meant using the picture card he already knew. We made a small copy on a key ring for his mother's purse and gave one to his grandmother, so the same cue appeared in every setting.

Training loosely meant varying when we practiced. Instead of only at dinner, I practiced during phone calls, laundry folding and computer work, so that "adult busy" in many forms became the cue for asking.

Sequential modification meant practicing at the grocery store. On two Saturday trips, his mother stopped to talk with a friend I played, and honored Mateo's request when he asked.

Results for Mateo

Within a month, Mateo asked his father on most evenings when Dad was on the phone and asked his grandmother during her cooking on two visits. At the store, he asked "Mama, play" on three of four stops, and his mother answered with a brief squeeze of his hand and a promise to finish quickly. Tantrums in new settings dropped from almost every outing to occasional ones, usually on days when he was tired or hungry.

Maintenance

Maintenance means the behavior lasts after the intervention changes or ends. Stokes and Baer's technique of introducing behavior to natural maintaining contingencies is central here. Mateo's asking will last if adults keep responding to it, which is far more likely than continued tantrum-free evenings being maintained by a timer. His mother no longer uses the three-minute timer; Mateo's asking now brings her attention, and that is the natural contingency we want.

Thinning also matters. As Mateo got older, his parents began responding to some requests with "In a minute," using the waiting practice we had built, so that asking would not require an immediate answer forever. The goal is a pattern that would be ordinary in any household.

Jonah's Homework at School

Jonah's homework routine needed the same planning. The two-minute break after three problems worked at his kitchen table, but his teacher reported refusal during class worksheets. With his family's consent, my supervisor shared the plan with his teacher, who agreed to a version that fit her classroom: after each completed section, Jonah could take a short walk to the water fountain. His mother sent the same visual timer to school, a common stimulus. Refusal in class fell over the next three weeks, though less than at home.

Measuring Generalization

Generalization has to be measured, not assumed. For each child, the team listed the people and places where the skill was needed and probed each one before teaching there. For Mateo, that meant five probe conditions: his mother at home, his father at home, his grandmother's apartment, the grocery store and his preschool classroom. In each probe, an adult became busy for five minutes while another adult recorded whether Mateo asked and whether a tantrum occurred. Baseline probes showed asking only with his mother at home. Repeating the same probes each month gave the team a simple table showing where the skill had spread and where it still needed teaching. The preschool remains the gap. His teacher has agreed to a probe next month, with the picture card on his cubby, and the team will decide then whether teaching there is needed.

Planning for Discharge

Services do not last forever. Cooper et al. (2020) recommend that behavior change programs include fading of intervention components and training caregivers to continue the plan independently. Before Mateo's services end, his parents will run the generalization routines alone for a month with weekly check-ins, and my supervisor will review data before discharge. If the asking fades, a brief booster period is planned.

Conclusion

Mateo's asking worked only where it was taught until the team programmed generalization, as Stokes and Baer recommend, using several adults, a portable picture card, varied practice and sessions at the store. The generality dimension described by Baer, Wolf and Risley defined the goal. Natural contingencies, thinning and a discharge plan support maintenance, and Jonah's routine was adapted for his classroom.

References

Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1(1), 91-97. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1968.1-91

Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Stokes, T. F., & Baer, D. M. (1977). An implicit technology of generalization. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 10(2), 349-367. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1977.10-349