Generalization from school to home with autistic children.

Handleman et al. (1980) compared two ways to teach autistic children to answer common questions like “What’s your name?”

One group practiced only at a classroom table. The other group practiced at the table, in the hall, in the gym, and in the office.

The team then watched who could still answer the same questions at home without extra teaching.

Kids who trained in many school spots carried the skill home better than kids who stayed in one spot.

The single-spot group mostly stayed quiet at home, even though they had answered fine at school.

Eshkevari (1979) ran almost the same study one year earlier and got the same result, so the 1980 paper is a clean replication with new kids.

Anderson (2001) later showed that training with many different WH-questions also helps answers travel across people and rooms. The two ideas pair well: move around the building AND rotate the questions.

Carr et al. (1985) found that casual, real-moment teaching beat rigid drills for preposition use. That seems to clash with S et al.’s tight table sessions, but the 1985 study kept kids in one corner. S et al. prove you can keep the drill format and still win—just change the scenery.

You don’t need new programs or extra staff. Take the child on a short walk while you run the same flash-card set in two or three spots. That tiny tweak can turn “school only” language into “works everywhere” language, saving you from re-teaching at home or in the community.