title: Acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of a categorization strategy by children with autism.
abstract: Assessed the effects of a categorization strategy on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of the abilities of four children with autism to accurately complete uni-, bi-, and tridimensional sorting tasks. The independent variable was a categorization strategy involving uni-, bi-, and tridimensional categorization. The dependent variable was the number of items correctly sorted. The research involved a multiple baseline across-behaviors design with clinical replications. Data indicate that categorization strategy training resulted in increased performance on uni-, bi-, and tridimensional sorting tasks by four children with autism. Three children showed stability with 100% accuracy on uni-, bi-, and tridimensional sorting activities; improvements on generalization probes associated with strategy training; and performance maintenance 2 months after the study. The results of the current research substantiate the worth of categorization strategy training for three children with autism.
authors.affiliation: University of Louisville.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bock
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001076:Aptitude; D001288:Attention; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003210:Concept Formation; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004519:Education, Special; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall