Teaching Functional Target Behaviors Educators can use the teaching functional target behaviors strategy to help student with severe disabilities achieve skill generalization. The skills and behaviors taught to the students should be relevant and functional. If the skill or behaviors are not relevant and functional, generalization is less likely to occur.
Several factors must happen for skill generalization to occur. First, the student should have sufficient opportunities to complete the task in the natural environment. Second, the student …show more content…
First, the educator should define the “instructional universe,” including all locations, persons, conditions, and variations that exists in the universe. Second, the educator should identify the range of relevant stimulus and response variations that affect the student’s ability to accurately complete the task. Third, the educator must choose an array of examples that he or she will use to teach the student and another set he or she will use for probe testing. Fourth, using the set of examples selected in step three, the eduator should arrange the examples into a logical sequence. Fifth, using instructional prompts (i.e., verbal prompts, gestural prompts, partial or full physical) the educator begins teaching the student. Finally, using the untrained probe examples identified in step three, the educator can assess the