HIGH-LEVERAGE PRACTICES IN Life Skills and Transition Programs

Oh The Places It Could Show:
Teaching Skills that Travel

Episode Description

In this episode, we explore high-leverage practices for teaching students to maintain and generalize new learning across time and settings, with a focus on preparing students for independence beyond the classroom. Lyndsay shares insights from her extensive experience in transition programs, highlighting the importance of applying skills in real-world contexts like community activities, employment, and daily routines.

Key Points and Takeaways

  • Effective teaching integrates strategies for generalization and maintenance of skills from the outset.
  • Generalization involves practicing skills across different settings and with varied instructors.
  • Maintenance ensures learned behaviors continue without ongoing instruction through reinforcement schedules and regular reviews.
  • Collaboration among educators is crucial in creating a seamless transition from learning to real-world application.
  • Input from families and communities is essential in aligning educational goals with cultural values and long-term success.
Podcast Guest

Lyndsay Palach Shelton, MA, LBSII

Lyndsay Palach Shelton is a transition specialist who specializes in determining realistic and fulfilling individual goals while working with families to inform, support, and guide them through the complex world of special education. She has been a special educator and transition specialist in the public education sector. Outside of her professional work, she enjoys running marathons around the country, traveling with her family, and enjoying delicious vegan dishes. Lyndsay is a Transition Specialist, Certified Vocational Coordinator, and Founder of Future SLTP with her Bachelors in Special Education, Master of Arts in Transition Education and Services, and certification in Cooperative Education.
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High-Leverage Practice #21:
Teach students to maintain and generalize new learning across time and settings.
Effective teachers use specific techniques to teach students to generalize and maintain newly acquired knowledge and skills. Using numerous examples in designing and delivering instruction requires students to apply what they have learned in other settings. Educators promote maintenance by systematically using schedules of reinforcement, providing frequent material reviews, and teaching skills that are reinforced by the natural environment beyond the classroom. Students learn to use new knowledge and skills in places and situations other than the original learning environment and maintain their use in the absence of ongoing instruction.
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It didn't really matter what you got in math class. It was all of the things that just needed to be done for the next 80 years post high school and post education.

Lyndsay Palach Shelton

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Host: Heather Volchko

Guest: Lyndsay Palach Shelton

This week, we're talking about High-Leverage Practice number 21, teaching students to maintain and generalize new learning across time and settings. And Lyndsay, for you and all of your practice,this is so critical. For you, can you tell me how this shows up in your day-to-day?

This is all that it is. And this is my absolute favorite part about it. When I started doing transition like 20 years ago, I just remember being like, ‘That's the point,’ right? This is the point. It didn't really matter what you got in math class. It was all of the things that just needed to be done for the next 80 years post-high school and post-education. So, when I think about all of the application and all of the practice in the classroom and all of the effort on behalf of families and the community and all of the people, it's for the purpose of creating highly independent, functioning members of society, and they path however they choose.

So I love the fact that this is like a solidified, High-Leverage Practice, because that's the point. We're not going to be in these cute little classrooms forever. We're not going to be taking a bus forever. We have to find quality services for students to be independent in their neighborhoods and in their communities, and really supportive interventions, networks, and communities for families out in their community as well.

Well, so I know maintaining and generalizing, that is the core of transition. Because you're taking everything from now, and you're attempting to the best of your ability now to prep them for everything that's coming, but then also kind of testing it out, like, is it actually sticking? Do they have what they need before we're no longer able to support them? So, in practice, what does it look like to see ‘are my students maintaining their skills?’ Are they generalizing it from when I'm teaching it in a structured classroom, to now they gotta go use it in the community or in a workplace? What does that look like in terms of that practitioner life?

Yeah. I love it when everyone starts talking about prompting. So they were talking about levels of prompting, certain levels of independence while prompting, or a percentage of task completion. And that's great to chart all that. And data obviously drives instruction and drives success for students. But getting them out in the community is where you see that practice. You can absolutely do math, but assisted math worksheets in a classroom are not very helpful unless you're taking students out into the community, paying for their own lunch, and trying to be as independent as possible.

And I think it's really eye-opening when you do have those opportunities, whether they're frequent or infrequent, that is the bread and butter that families want to hear. Or maybe sometimes they don't want to hear, but schools and teams really need to be sharing that because they may be getting an A in math. But, how does that translate, and what kind of supports do they need in order to get that A?

So, I always like using the transportation option because it's the biggest barrier to employment. And so, for years I remember there were a bunch of different services and community providers that I would bring into the schools. And it would revolve around day programming, transportation, employment options, or a number of different topics. But we would bring in the transportation liaison for the train, for the bus, for all these things.

And we would talk about some of these topics. But then we realized that there was a difference in access to what some of these services were available in the community. Sure, we can get on the train, and we could practice this because this is transportation, this is money, this is mobility, this is independence. But if there's one train route in your town and it's not taking you anywhere that you want to go, what's the point?

So how are we going to find structural change? Do we need to go to the village office? Do we need to have a petition to create more accessible transportation in the area? So, where it starts as this classroom, ‘can they complete a task, yes or no?’ Really turns into this community movement of how do we make this more accessible and provide more independent access to any of our community members?

Gosh, I love that. It's always so much bigger than the classroom. It doesn't matter what age level you're working with or what skills you're targeting. It's always so much bigger than just the classroom.It's where it starts, but it's not where it ends. Life is not fully within our school walls, as much as school practitioners, it certainly feels like it is. There is so much going on so far outside of that.

I'm curious if you have any stories of when you've seen, like, that ‘aha’ moment for a practitioner where they're so focused on, like, they have their curriculum or they have their scope and sequence, or they have whatever those things that they need to make sure that they are adhering to as a practitioner, but they're also embedding in either some of the community elements or some of that just, like, everything you literally just talked about, have you walked with practitioners through that and had them kind of have their own ‘aha’ to see how that really sticks with their students?

So, one in particular, there was a transition program that I was working with, and it was your typical transition program, and they did a lot of whole group meals. And so we had a student with some mobility issues. There were some communication barriers, and there were just certain things that we weren't necessarily taking into place. And so one of the things was there was a gallon of milk, which sounds so arbitrary. Well, the student in particular could not pick up this entire gallon of milk and pour it for everyone. So I'm like, ‘why are we delegating this task to everyone?’ Why aren't we thinking back and thinking like, okay, this is the day that this person is responsible for providing the beverages to everyone. Why isn't everyone just getting individual drinks? Why on earth are we even wasting time dismissing this person's ability, talents, or need to be part of this group and doing that? And so I think when we kind of sat down and looked at everything and thought, it needs to look a little different. It made complete sense, and it was a complete ‘aha moment.’ Like, why are we doing it this way? This person is able to participate. And the family was more than happy that there was a little bit of a shift change in what we were thinking about in terms of participation in the program.

And the other one that I can think of is we had a bunch of students who were having a hard time really problem-solving. And, a lot of the IEP was written about interactions and conflict resolution and everything like that. And for some reason, you look at the IEP goals and the updates, and they're like, ‘meeting progress.’ ‘Meeting progress.’ Well, great. When there's a group of 12 students in your program, you're around the same 12 students every single day. However, we started this program where, in addition to going to the community and in the gym and shopping and all the other things that community integration involves, our social groups were nearby, other transition programs. So instead of just hanging out with “high school kids” every month or every week, they would get together and meet up with their peers, which is appropriate. Like, my college friends don't necessarily live in my community, but I'm going to meet up with them every once in a while. We're going to make plans. And so the whole point of that is there was huge conflict resolution when they weren't around the same people every single day. 

So in that space of 12 people, and highly supportive related service staff, mental health providers, teachers, and assistants, we were seeing a more realistic application of skills that we had never seen before. Whereas, the parents would say they'd go home, and they're still having a hard time, and their friends down the block, and stuff like that. So, adding that other perspective of, yeah, like, this is the important part. Not necessarily what's happening in this one house with these 12 students, but that “future employee” or that “future person that you're going to be sitting next to when you're on the bus.” I think it was really helpful when we started thinking about, like, okay, what's the point? And what are these moments that we're just having a little bit more realization with?

Everything you're sharing, I'm hearing this perspective aspect. Are we only seeing what we're seeing now, or are we also seeing either, I'm thinking other scenarios or other ways that these skills can show up, or even just how I'm viewing the instruction or the programming that I'm running, and can I shift that? And it comes so naturally for you. You're just like, well, of course this is how you see the world. And then you say these things, and people have these ‘ahas.’

So I'm curious for you, how did you grow into just seeing that there's so much variability and so many different opportunities for that progress or for that independence or whatever may be that potential outcome for that individual. You just see that vast array of potential. It seems so simple. How did you grow into that?

Honestly, I think it's just the variety of families that you get to work with throughout the years. Things that I think are important as a young professional mean nothing to this family that has been struggling for years and years. And it could go back as far as their infertility journal. You are just so unaware of these things. And one of the big things that I love doing with my former students and my clients is every time I start working with a new family, I always do a MAPS meeting.

Like, hands down, we always do making action plans. And we really look into the background, the history, the desires for the family, their hopes and dreams, their barriers. And so those really raw and authentic conversations give me so much feedback. Because without that, how can a team plan; how can a team know any of this? And realistically, why are you going to start taking data on any of this if it's not what the goal of the family is? We had a family of another student that was very much, ‘yes, that's very nice that you're working with him on independence. However, culturally, we are responsible for taking care of our children moving forward.’ And I think there was a lot of anger with the school staff not understanding that perspective. But at the end of the day, they don't live with me. I'm gonna have another bunch of kids that are gonna be coming in, and other not even kids, adults. And if that's what their role is, and if that's what their family support system and setup is for the current and the future, who am I to say anything?

But I also think that comes with just years of learning that. Because at first you just get so agitated and you don't understand, but then when you move forward with it, you're just individually helping each family and meeting them where they're at in order to move forward.  And so I think while it's very easy for possibly a classroom teacher to have boxes like X, Y, and Z, transition has always been a space of so much gray. Absolutely, so much gray. And even the terminology that we use, like independence. What is independence? I mean, I hire someone for taxes. I don't do everything by myself, and so I think certain terms make families very nervous. And so, starting with a MAPS meeting, just meet them where they're at, learn their story. And I think it goes a long way. I mean, setting that tone of that trust and that honesty from the beginning goes such a long way.

I know you've worked with so many practitioners and programs as they've been developing their transition programming, with that heavy focus on, ‘It's so much bigger than just what you're doing right now.’ I'm curious if you've worked with anyone, if it's a team, or kind of how a program was built, that they think that they're focused on generalization, but maybe not. Like some of those things, like, ‘oh, like we know this is going to transfer’ or ‘it worked in this way, so therefore obviously it's generalized,’ and you're looking at it from your depth and breadth of experience, practice, and all those things, and being like, ‘I don't know that that's actually what you think that is.’ Do you have any examples of where people thought it was generalization, but it's maybe not?

Oh, my favorite. Job coach training. Oh my goodness. Okay. So, hands down, the most critical element of future employment. So when I was going through my master's, I had to pick a topic, and it was just so easy for me to do job coach training. Because even if you look at job descriptions through school districts, programs, or adult services, job coach descriptions are very vague. Usually, they don't necessarily require a bachelor's degree. There's no specific requirement of this role. And so the bare minimum is having an “adult” with a student in the community watching them perform a skill.

And so when we look at what they're doing, they're with these job coaches like a vast majority of the time and not with the credentialed transition vocational specialist. So it's that dissemination of the skill, it's overseeing all that. It's how to collect the data, how to be able to do this. And so when I did my thesis on job coach training, I mean, it was so eye-opening to me because of the however many hours per week, however many weeks per year that these students are under the supervision of some staff member out in the community. There has to be quality job coach training, whether that's for safety, whether that's for employment advancement, or whether that's for skill generalization.

Out in the community, there is so much growth and so much expertise that goes into what each minute could look like if you want to quantify it and take that data. And it's just wasted time if it's not. So, like that supervision is super, super important. So I feel like that's one space where certain programs feel like they've got an army. Like, yeah, we got our job coaches out there, and we're supervising, and we're making sure that they're safe. But, really, what are we doing with this growing staff out in the community? How are we taking that information, and how are we generalizing it across to all these places? Because if our job coaches aren't connecting with our social workers or job coaches aren't meeting with the psychologists, they are such an integral piece of the team. And so when they're not let into those loops, whether that's for confidentiality or for outside of their job description, there are so many other reasons why things are a little siloed when we're doing that.

But that's a huge piece. And, they'll use ‘job coach/one-on-one aid/classroom assistant,’ whatever the title wants to be. The reality is, is the adult that this person is spending a majority of their time where they should be getting deliberate instruction that's eventually going to generalize across settings.

I am so thankful for how passionate you are about really, truly meeting the needs of some of our oldest students so that they can be successful in whatever their adult life looks like. I just, I appreciate that passion, and like people can't see us. It's like, it literally exudes out of you.

So I'm, I'm wondering if we can wrap up this conversation this week by just sharing when you're looking at programming in that day-to-day, and you're seeing just you naturally jump years down the road to see how that comes out. Do you have any little words of wisdom for how practitioners can really see their day-to-day in the way that you are just bubbling out at this point?

Yeah, I think a lot of the down the road has come from former parents that now that I see them, their student is now 30, 40 years old, and always, always, always is, ‘I wish we knew what we know now.’ And that is any parent, that is any learned lesson. But when you talk to these families, and they now see all of the things that we were bringing to their attention, it's too much. Their plate is just absolutely full. So as practitioners, we can certainly look at what is manageable. How are we able to work on these little skills? We certainly cannot cover everything. But given each family scenario, how can we break it down and make it the most manageable and applicable for all the families?

Perfect. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us this week! I am so thankful that we had this conversation so that our listeners could hear you and that passion that you bring to really doing more than just our day-to-day. We're doing more in everything that we are doing, and it will last a lifetime, literally.

Thank you.

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They may be getting an A in math. Right. But, like, how does that translate and what kind of supports are they needing in order to get that A, Right?

Lyndsay Palach Shelton

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Generalization and maintenance of newly acquired skills are ongoing challenges for students with disabilities, particularly those with autism spectrum disorder. Generalization refers to the ability to perform a learned behavior in different environments from where it was initially taught. This process doesn’t happen by chance; it needs to be systematically programmed into the instruction. Research has shown that skill development follows a clear sequence: students first acquire accuracy, then move toward fluency, maintenance, and finally generalization. For generalization to take place, students must practice skills across various settings and with different instructors. It’s crucial to vary the instructions and reinforcers and create commonalities between the teaching environment and real-world settings to help students use these skills beyond the classroom. 


On the other hand, maintenance happens when a student continues using a learned skill without the need for further instruction. Teachers play a significant role here, using reinforcement schedules, regular reviews of material, and other methods to ensure that learned behaviors are retained in new environments. This reduces the student’s dependency on the teacher and makes their skills more functional in everyday life. Effective educators understand that both generalization and maintenance need to be planned for from the start, ensuring these strategies are embedded into the teaching of new academic or social skills.


A defining challenge for students with disabilities is their difficulty in transferring newly learned content and skills to settings beyond where they were initially taught. This makes it essential for educators to explicitly teach how to apply that knowledge in different environments. While explicit instruction and providing feedback are crucial to this process, collaboration among teachers is equally important to ensure students can generalize and maintain these skills. By working together, educators can create a strategic plan to help students apply key knowledge across various settings. Additionally, promoting maintenance of these skills involves the use of structured reinforcement schedules, frequent reviews of the material, and focusing on skills that naturally carry over into the student's daily life outside the classroom. Effective teaching doesn’t just stop at content delivery—it ensures students can use what they’ve learned in the real world.


Teachers who excel at promoting active student engagement play a pivotal role in helping students generalize skills and behaviors across different settings. The techniques that work in one environment should be applied consistently wherever the desired behavior is expected. This involves helping students recognize natural reinforcements, whether it's social cues or environmental rewards. It's about expanding their ability to respond appropriately in a variety of situations, people, and contexts by using a range of examples during instruction. Reinforcement schedules play a key role, with strategies such as indiscriminable contingencies keeping students engaged by making reinforcement less predictable, encouraging the persistence of positive behaviors. 


Another crucial element is programming similar stimuli between training and real-world settings, ensuring that the cues for desired behaviors are consistent. Teaching self-management skills, such as self-monitoring and reporting on their own progress, helps students take ownership of their learning and behavior, which in turn aids generalization. Verbal instructions also support this process by prompting students to think about how their behaviors should translate into new contexts.


On the maintenance side, effective teachers use reinforcement schedules to ensure that positive behaviors continue long after initial teaching. Starting with continuous reinforcement, where every instance of a desired behavior is rewarded, and gradually shifting to intermittent schedules ensures that behaviors become ingrained. Overlearning trials and distributed practice are key techniques that provide students with additional opportunities to reinforce and solidify their skills.


Data collection plays an essential role in monitoring the generalization and maintenance of behaviors. Timing and setting are important factors in gathering meaningful data, and selecting a reliable data collection system helps teachers track progress effectively. By summarizing the data visually and comparing student performance over time, educators can identify areas where additional support or adjustments are needed to promote further generalization and success.


For school leaders looking to support teachers effectively, focusing on professional development and coaching is crucial. It's not just about providing instruction but also about guiding educators in selecting and implementing strategies that enhance students' ability to generalize and maintain their skills. Observing classroom practices and offering targeted feedback or coaching helps ensure that these strategies are applied correctly and effectively.


Encouraging collaboration among all school professionals is another key aspect. Promoting generalization and maintenance of skills isn't a solo effort; it's a team-oriented process that benefits from the input and coordination of everyone involved. Facilitating this collaboration ensures that all team members are aligned in their approach and understand their roles in supporting students.


Additionally, equipping educators with the skills to teach self-management behaviors to students is essential. This includes providing targeted instruction and professional development in how to help students develop self-regulation and independent learning strategies. By focusing on these areas, school leaders can help create a more supportive and effective learning environment that fosters long-term success for all students.


Systematically programming for the generalization and maintenance of new learning is a practice deeply rooted in empirical evidence, especially when it comes to teaching students with disabilities. This approach is not just a theoretical ideal but a proven method for helping students retain and apply social and academic skills across various settings and with different instructors.


The foundational techniques for this practice have been validated through numerous studies. These techniques, primarily evaluated through single-case methodology, have shown significant success in enhancing student outcomes. Single-case designs are particularly effective for intervention research aimed at improving the educational experiences of students with disabilities.


According to established guidelines for evidence-based practices, the studies supporting these techniques meet the rigorous criteria for evidence-based practice. This means that the methods used are not only well-researched but also validated through practical application, ensuring they are effective in real-world educational settings.

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