Effects of Classroom Public Transportation Instruction on Generalization to the Natural Environment

Abstract

A severely handicapped 20-year-old woman in a public school setting was taught to ride the city bus. It was determined that bus-riding skills would facilitate access to environments the woman was expected to occupy after public school services were terminated. Training was conducted in both the classroom and the natural environment. During classroom instruction, a simulated setting, consisting of chairs in rows, a coin box, a buzzer, boards to represent the curb and sidewalk edges, and slides were utilized. The slides were used to indicate the point of bus departure. During natural environment instruction, training occurred on actual buses. Behaviors were divided into skill clusters of bus boarding and bus departing. Each of these clusters was taught first in the classroom with generalization probes and then in the natural environment. Results were shown in a multiple baseline design. They indicated that skills acquired in the classroom, for both bus boarding and bus departing, generalized only minimally to the natural environment. They were not demonstrated in the natural environment until natural environment training was provided.