Generalization Programming and School-Based Consultation: An Examination of Consultees' Generalization of Consultation-Related Skills

One of the highlighted benefits of school-based consultation is that it has the potential to be preventive. Unfortunately, many of the preventive advantages of consultation have yet to be fully evaluated. The purpose of this study was to first examine the extent to which teachers generalize consultation-related skills in the classroom. A second purpose was to examine the extent to which teachers generalize consultation-related skills in the classroom following a generalization prompt and a generalization-training program. A multiple baseline across subjects design was used to examine generalization of school-based consultation and the effects of a generalization prompt and a generalization training condition. In general, 2 of the 3 participants demonstrated at least some increase in generalization behaviors following the generalization prompt and generalization training program. Overall, the results suggest that providing a specific generalization prompt and participating in a generalization training program have promise as means of increasing the amount that teachers generalize, but that generalization is difficult to program.