Acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of a categorization strategy by children with autism

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.