This study examined the effectiveness of a behavioral parent training package that included initial training in two settings in the home with generalization of parenting skills (and the need for additional intervention) being assessed to a third setting in the home. Training in behavior modification skills was introduced in a multi ple baseline design across parents. The results showed that although all parents increased their correct use of behavior modification skills following the introduction of intervention in two home settings, only one parent out of three spontaneously generalized these skills to a third home setting. The results of this study suggest that generalization of parenting skills across home settings may not take place for some parents without specific programming. Finally, the study showed that once skills had generalized across settings, parenting skills and child efforts maintained over a 1-year period.DESCRIPTORS: autism, behavior management, early intervention, families, generalization, parent train ing, parents Although the need for a more intensive investigation of generalization of parenting skills has been clearly cited in a number of parent training reviews (e.g., Baker,

Visual screening, a mildly aversive response suppression procedure, was evaluated across two studies for its effectiveness in reducing topographically similar and dissimilar stereotypic behaviors of four developmentally disabled children. In the first study, a multiple baseline design across subjects and behaviors was used to assess the effectiveness of the procedure as a treatment for reducing the visual and auditory self-stimulatory responses of two 9-yr-old mentally retarded and behaviorally disturbed children. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used in the second study to evaluate the effectiveness of visual screening as a treatment for reducing stereotypic fabric pulling and self-mutilative ear bending, respectively, of two 13-yr-old mentally retarded, autisticlike adolescents. Long-term follow-up data for both studies were reported. The results suggested that visual screening was an easily administered, effective, and exceptionally durable treatment procedure for controlling a variety of stereotypic behaviors commonly associated with the developmentally disabled.

This study evaluated the effects of a multicomponent parent training program which emphasized the acquisition of general (as opposed to task-specific) techniques on parents' ability to generalize learned skills from an academic task school setting to a structured play home setting. Training in behavior modification skills was introduced in a multiple baseline design across subjects (parents). The results showed that the training procedures facilitated spontaneous generalization of parenting skills from the school to the home for one parent but not for a second parent. After in-home generalization training was conducted for the one parent, both parents demonstrated a maintenance of learned skills over a 12-month follow-up period. The results of the study support the need for vigorous assessment of generalization and maintenance and the identification of specific intervention procedures and parent/ family variables that may be associated with treatment outcome.

This paper presents some basic guidelines for planning and conducting single-subject research in special education classrooms, and argues that single-subject research procedures are conceptually compatible with special education practices. Teachers seldom implement their own experiments and in general do not recognize the relevance of research to special education. As one contribution toward rectifying this problem, this paper highlights three basic steps for doing single-subject research in applied special education settings: selecting appropriate target behaviors, designing observational assessment procedures, and selecting cost-effective means for data collection that can be conducted by classroom personnel.

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