Response Generalization: What it is and why it's important

Just What is Response Generalization Anyway?

Technical definitions of response generalization can be difficult to understand so I will start with two examples of response generalization. In my early teens I was taught to type on a keyboard. Much later, I used those same typing skills to learn how to use swipe-to-text on my phone. Here’s another example. I learned about street safety as a child during a course in elementary school with my bike. I started using the same safety skills when walking. Now the definition. Essentially, response generalization has occurred when a person uses a new skill, that can be similar to a known skill, to access a known consequence. Let’s break down these 2 examples;

Example 1

I was taught to drive in a specific car. It was a manual and sometimes the engine would turn off on a left turn. When I finally got another car, I learned to drive it, despite it being an automatic and the engine staying on. 

Example 2

Did you have a street safety course in elementary or primary school? Our parking lot was made to look like a city block, with streets, fake shops, and street signs. Those of us with bikes were asked to bring them and everyone else walked. I had a bike and learned how to navigate streets. About a year later we moved somewhere new and much closer to the school so I stopped riding my bike. I used the same safety rules I learned on my bike, while walking in a new place.

Doesn't Response Generalization Happen on Its Own?

For many people, response generalization happens naturally. Driving a car is a perfect example. No one had to specifically teach you how to drive each car, but sometimes it isn’t that easy. Individuals with developmental disorders tend to struggle with spontaneous generalization and benefit strongly from ABA programs that specifically teach for response generalization (Pratt, Wickerd, & Steege, 2019).

Why is Response Generalization important?

Response generalization is important and often an explicit goal of ABA intervention because it allows individuals to independently use new versions of skills they have been taught in situations where a known consequence is available; like the example of me learning to use swipe-to-text on my phone by myself after being taught to type on a keyboard. The effect of response generalization helps  extend the effects of ABA intervention to new environments where ABA services may not be available. To put it another way, the skills being taught in any specific environment, like the clinic or the school, are more likely to be used in other places, like the home and the community, when response generalization is a goal in treatment.

How Do You Support Response Generalization?

Supporting Generalization is a major goal of ABA treatment and is addressed throughout the entire course of treatment (Pratt, Wickerd, & Steege, 2019). Let’s look at an example first and talk about the steps after. When you are teaching a child to ride a bike, you may start with training wheels, or you may hold onto them. You will also likely stay relatively close to your home, likely on your street. As your child gets more stable, you may remove a training wheel, or a hand. If they remain upright you may remove both training wheels or let go. If they stay up, they may start to ride further and further away from the house.

The idea is that you support the child as they are learning a skill (it doesn’t have to be bike riding) while being thoughtful of the places and situations where they will eventually use the skill. If I wanted to teach someone a skill I would use these basic steps. Let’s use the example of “riding a bike” used above.

• Use a variety of examples of any materials used in the skill

In the case of riding a bike there are a few different things used, from bikes, to helmets, to safety and road signs. It is important to make sure that the child you are teaching has exposure to different types of all of these materials, like seeing or using different bikes or helmets.

• Practice using the skill in different places and situations

When teaching someone to ride a bike, it would be important to make sure that they practice to ride in a few places, like on their home street, at an intersection, or at a stoplight. It is impossible to take your child for supervised practice everywhere they will ever ride a bike. What is important is to practice at places they will encounter that are similar everywhere you ride a bike, like responding to a stop sign.  

• Make sure the person knows when they can, and can’t, use the skill

When teaching any skill it is important to also teach times and situations where using the skill is appropriate, as well as teaching times and situations that are not appropriate. For riding a bike every family will be different and that is okay. It is important to be clear about when bike riding can, and cannot, take place like; “Be home before dinner” or “You can ride your bike after you finish your homework and chores”. This also includes rewarding the child for riding their bike during the correct times (it can be simple, like saying, “You are so fast on your bike! Nice work!”)

Making it Fun

When your child learns a new skill, be energetic and animated for them to show you the skill. Have them practice the skill, or practice with them, using different materials, like encouraging a child using pencils to try using paint. It can serve as quality time together that also serves a purpose of helping your child become more independent and flexible. Response generalization can also be an incredibly rewarding experience to be a part of. Being part of a child’s play when they learn that they can do things on their own is really special. 

References

Pratt, J. L., Wickerd, G. D., & Steege, M. W. (2019). Generalization and maintenance. In S. G. Little & A. Akin-Little (Eds.), Applying psychology in the schools book series. Behavioral interventions in schools: Evidence-based positive strategies (p. 97–111). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000126-006

Negative Reinforcement and Punishment What’s the Difference?

What’s the Difference?

 Though they often get confused, it is probably best to first explain what those in the ABA field mean by the terms negative reinforcement and punishment.

Negative Reinforcement

 Negative reinforcement involves the relief of something undesirable being removed. An example would be when you get into your car and it starts beeping before you put on your seatbelt. The beeping is undesirable and engaging in the behaviour of putting on your seatbelt removes the beep. This type of reinforcement is aimed at increasing a behaviour and should not be thought of as punishment.

 Punishment

 Punishment on the other hand is a strategy designed to decrease behaviour and refers to something being added or removed immediately after the behaviour takes place. Many people think of punishment as typical aversive procedures, like reprimands, scolding, and even spankings, but often these things don’t reduce behaviour the way we would like. There are two types of punishment: positive and negative. It might help to think of positive punishment as pain, and negative punishment as cost.

Positive Punishment

Positive punishment can be thought of as pain, though not necessarily physical. As humans we tend to avoid pain as best we can and reduce doing things that lead to pain. Think of your mother saying she is “really disappointed in you”, or falling on some ironshore when rough-housing on the beach. The uncomfortable feeling hurts and we are less likely to engage in the behaviour again.

Negative Punishment

Negative Punishment can be thought of as cost, or loss. As humans we tend to want to minimize our costs and avoid losing things that are precious to us. Think of lending a favorite item to a friend and never seeing it again, or getting a speeding ticket. The loss, or cost, isn’t desirable and we are less likely to engage in the behaviour again.

 What is the Confusion?

So, how does negative reinforcement get confused with punishment? Consider this example. A child struggles with math and often whines and “acts up” right before and during maths class. A typical way for a teacher to “punish” the child may be to send them to the office for their behaviour, but this may not be punishing at all. In fact, it is possible that being sent to the principal's office for “acting out” in maths class is preferable to attending maths class for this child. While the teacher was attempting to decrease the child’s disruptive behaviour, they may have actually increased it instead.

How to tell the Difference

In ABA the way we learn about a person’s behaviour is by watching them. What this means is that the more an ABA practitioner sees a behaviour, the more likely it is that the person is getting some kind of reward or relief from the behaviour. Extending the above example, if a child is repeatedly being sent to the office during maths class, then being sent to the office isn’t acting as punishment because it isn’t reducing the child’s “acting up” behaviour, it is maintaining it.

 If you are interested in learning more, check out this clip from the famous show Big Bang Theory where Sheldon provides an explanation on the difference between Negative Reinforcement and Positive Punishment.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhI5h5JZi-U

Behaviour as Communication

The way that humans behave with each other often has communicative properties, even when they aren’t speaking. Even when humans are speaking, most of what they say to each other is non-verbal (tone, expression, etc.). In other words, we use our behaviour to ask others to help us with things we can’t do alone or by ourselves. 

Think of it this way. What could an infant having a tantrum in a store be communicating? It could be that they are hungry. It could be that they are ready to leave. It could even be that they don’t feel well and need comfort from someone else. This leads to one of the hard things about communicating, which is; others don’t always hear what we are trying to say.

What Are You Trying to Tell Me?

How can we tell what someone is trying to say if they can’t speak? Really, it isn’t very different from speaking, but it can be a lot harder to “hear” when others don’t speak. One trick is to look at the response that stops a person’s behaviour. 

That can be a bit confusing so let’s look at an example with speech. With typical, spoken communication, if someone calls your name and you respond, the person tends to stop calling your name, because you responded. Imagine if someone called your name and you didn’t respond. What might happen? The person might call your name more loudly, they may get nearer to you, and they may try to get your eye contact. If any of those other behaviours gets your attention, they will probably stop.

Let’s look at the same situation without speech. If someone starts to stomp and grunt they may be trying to get your attention. If you don’t respond, they may grunt and stomp more loudly, or they may get closer to you. They may try tapping you or grabbing you. If you finally look at the person and say, “What do you need?” and they stop, then they were probably trying to get your attention.

Let’s look at one more example without speech. You are talking to a friend and the person you are with starts to fidget and grab at your phone. If you just keep talking, they may become louder, more insistent, or just walk off. They probably aren’t trying to bug you, they may be bored or looking for something to do while you  talk.

A Very Brief Look at Functions

The trick to understanding what people are “saying” with their behaviour is to find out what the person is trying to get with their behaviour, what those in ABA call a “function”. In ABA, we look at what happens right after a behaviour to figure out why the behaviour happened. People have complex needs but they can all be fit into 4 broad categories of needs (or functions) and if one of these happens right after a behaviour, it might be why the behaviour happened. First, let's look at the things that can happen after a behaviour;

Accessing Items or Activities

The person is able to access something they can feel, eat, or use. An example is buying movie tickets so that you can access the activity of watching a movie. 

Accessing Social Attention

The person does something so that other people will engage with them. An example is telling a funny story or calling an old friend to chat.

Accessing a Sensation

The person does something because of the sensation it produces. An example is clicking a pen, tapping a foot, or twirling your hair

Escaping Something Unpleasant

The person does something to get out of, or avoid, something unpleasant to them. An example of this is driving the speed limit and following all traffic laws so that you do not get a ticket, which is unpleasant

When Words Fail Us

People we encounter do not always have the skills needed to communicate their needs. A person like this cannot tell you that they need to eat, or that they want some attention, or that they need help to do an activity they enjoy. So how do people that don’t speak learn to communicate? If there is no plan what often happens in cases like this is that the person does something (yells, cries, stomps, etc.) that ends with a need being met, so they become more likely to do the same thing again the next time they have that need. 

It can be confusing so here is an example. A child that cannot speak begins to stamp their foot and grunt loudly while standing in the kitchen. Their mother comes over and says “it’s okay, what is wrong?”, but the person can’t respond so they keep stomping and grunting, maybe even getting louder or more intense. The mother wants to stop the grunting and stomping so she gives the child some food and comfort. If the child was hungry, or wanted attention they would likely stop grunting and stomping when their mother gave them food and comfort, but they will be more likely to stand in the kitchen and stomp and grunt the next time they are hungry or want attention. 

So What Now?

So what do you do about it? Knowing what a person is trying to get, or “say” with their behaviour lets you make sure they get it only for doing what you want. Let’s look at it practically with our prior example. Since we see that the child grunting and stomping their feet results in food and attention, we can make a plan to teach the child how to ask for food and attention first thing in the morning and before meal times. 

This can look a lot of ways. You could have a small packet in the kitchen filled with pictures of different food items that the child can select and bring to you. You could teach the child sign language for “food” and “hug”. You could even teach the child to come and tap your arm a certain number of times to indicate food. The idea is to find out what the person wants and then teach them to ask for it in a way that they can easily do. 

Hopefully this article will give you some ideas about communication and some strategies for figuring out what others are trying to tell you. Look at what happens right after a behaviour for help in figuring out why it happens and remember that knowledge is power; the more you know about a person, their strengths, weakness, likes and dislikes, the better you can help them.