Presented by
David Trembath, PhD
Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University
Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, La Trobe University
Text
- We need to know not only if the intervention has been associated with a change in behaviour, but also the extent to which change in behaviour has been maintained, increased or decreased over time
- We also want to know if the change in behaviour has generalised to other contexts (e.g., playtime)
- The length of time to follow-up, and the context/s for measuring generalisation, depend on the nature of your intervention and the target behaviour
In the case of Jonathan, we would like to collect:
- Follow-up data to see if he continues to use the word ‘more’
- Generalisation data to see if he starts to use the word ‘more’ in other situations (e.g., during play)
- The data in the graph indicate that Jonathan both maintained and genaralised his use of the word ‘more’
Activity
Think about your own client, or the case example, and answer the following questions:
- Over what length of time would you want to see the change in behaviour maintained, in order to deem the intervention effective?
- In which other contexts would you want to see the behaviour produced, in order to deem the intervention effective?
Note that although you can measure maintenance and generalisation using the techniques presented previously, the decision as to whether or not maintenance and generalisation are ‘clinically significant’ will require clinical judgement, taking into account all relevant factors.