Using an Interrupted Behavior Chain Strategy to Teach Generalized Communication Responses

Three students with severe disabilities were taught to request items or events within four interrupted behavior chain contexts. When interrupted behavior chain procedures were in effect, a typical operant instructional trial for teaching communication responses was inserted into the middle of an ongoing predictable sequence of behaviors such as brushing teeth or playing ball. Throughout the baseline and intervention phases, generalization probes were conducted to determine whether the newly acquired responses would be performed within behavior chains not yet used for instruction. The results demonstrated that for each of the three students the communicative function and the response form acquired within one behavior chain context generalized without further instruction to at least two chains in which training had not yet occurred. Moreover, for two of the students the picture discrimination skills required for selection of the appropriate content for each communication response generalized to nontraining contexts.