Acquisition and Generalization of Coffee Purchase Skills by Adults with Severe Disabilities

Abstract

Six adults with severe disabilities were taught to purchase coffee in a community sit-down restaurant. Skills in the community were taught using a 46 step task analysis, a prompt hierarchy of least to greatest prompts, and social reinforcement. Generalization was assessed across two restaurants with similar characteristics and one with dissimilar characteristics (i.e., a fast food restaurant). At the completion of training, the people involved in the study demonstrated competencies equal to non-handicapped customers and they maintained these skills at a two to five month follow-up assessment.