Designing Instructional Programs to Facilitate Generalization of Object Categories by Young Handicapped Children

In recent years, the ability of young handicapped children to generalize learning has become a primary concern of preschool teachers. In particular, generalization from objects used In training to similar objects In the child's natural environment will Increase the child's functional skills. One successful technique for promoting the acquisition of generalized object categories by handicapped children Involves the use of only good, or representative, examples during initial instruction. The standard system used to identify good examples of a category (a 7-point rating scale) is time-consuming, Therefore, we tested a more efficient, descriptive procedure for use by teachers who wish to Identify good examples. Both the standard system and the descriptive procedure were used to determine good examples of a set of categories. A comparison of the results of both procedures indicated that the descriptive procedure is a viable alternative for teachers. Suggestions for instruction of generalized object categories are made.