Explain generalization and the challenges of generalization faced by students with intellectual disabilities. Give a example of a generalization problem a student might have (not used in the textbook) that illustrates why teaching in a typical community setting is important

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

It refers to the ability to transfer knowledge or behavior learned for one task to another task and to make that transfer across different settings or environments. People with intellectual disabilities often have difficulty generalizing skills they learn in school to home and community settings because the cues, expectations, people, and environmental arrangements are different. Settings outside of school are generally more complex, have more distractions, and more irrelevant stimuli to confuse a person with intellectual disabilities. Furthermore, people with intellectual disabilities tend to have problems with using their working memory in novel situations. For example, you might teach a student how to safely cross a street in a classroom simulation, only to find that the student does not follow the "learned" steps at a real street crossing. It is essential, therefore, that such a skill be taught in a natural, community environment.