Children were taught target communication objectives using milieu language teaching. The construction of generalization probes and the categorization of spontaneous occurrences of the target objectives were guided by a 4 x 6 matrix with setting/communication partner (SCP) variables on one dimension and situations requiring gradually decreasing demands for listener preparatory behaviors (LPBs) on the other. Both dimensions also represented continua that progressed from situations that were most like those of intervention to situations that were less similar. The 2 children who acquired their objectives using milieu language teaching were observed to generalize their target objectives spontaneously and in probe situations that also required them to display listener preparatory behaviors. However, analyses of the generalization matrices revealed that their patterns of generalization differed in a variety of ways and that similarity to training offered only a partial explanation of the results.
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