1. Data Collection & Data-based Decision Making
Julie Smith, M.A., BCBA
Maigret Fay, M.Ed, BCBA
Amy Cohen, PhD, BCBA
HowardCenter Autism Spectrum Program
July 12th, 2011

2. Objectives Reasons Most common topics to record data on
Data collection methods
Examples of data collection forms
Practice data collection
Develop methods for your students

3. Why collect data? Determine the behavior targeted for change
Helps determine the function of the behavior
Shows if intervention is working
Supports accurate decision making
Determines preferences and reinforcement
Can show progress and rate of skill acquisition
Allows for credibility from other team members

4. Definitions of Evidence-Based Practice
Evidence-based practice is an approach that tries to specify the way in which professionals or other decision-makers should make decisions by identifying such evidence that there may be for a practice, and rating it according to how scientifically sound it may be. Its goal is to eliminate unsound or excessively risky practices in favor of those that have better outcomes

5. What is Applied Behavior Analysis?
A discipline committed to the understanding and improvement of human behavior
Focuses on objectively defined, observable behaviors of social significance
Seeks to improve behavior while demonstrating reliability between applied interventions and the noted improvement

6. ABA defined (cont.) APPLIED
Refers to the social significance of the behavior
Of immediate importance to the individual or society
BEHAVIOR
Behavior is in need of improvement
Behavior must be observable and measurable

7. ABA defined (cont.) We change behavior by changing the ENVIRONMENT
ANALYSIS
Believability
Demonstrates a functional relationship between behavior and intervention
controls the occurrence and nonoccurrence of a behavior
We change behavior by changing the ENVIRONMENT

8. National Standards Project from the National Autism Center
11 Established Treatments are:
Antecedent Package
Behavioral Package
Comprehensive Behavioral Treatment for Young Children
Joint Attention Intervention
Modeling
Naturalistic Teaching Strategies
Peer Training Package
Pivotal Response Treatment
Schedules
Self-management
Story-based Intervention Package
22 Emerging Treatments

9. Activity What data collection methods do you use currently?
Who collects the data?
How do you collect the data?
What do you do with the data?

10. Data Collection Descriptive Analysis Preference/Reinforcer Assessments
Skill Acquisition
Daily living skills

11. Behavior

12. What Is Behavior? An action, resulting in environmental change
It can have one or more measurable dimensions - frequency, duration, intensity
Observable and measurable
Unseen event can influence the occurrence of behavior
e.g. internal thoughts, illness, etc

13. ABC Data Collection Descriptive Analysis
Descriptive Analysis refers to the process of obtaining direct and daily information concerning the context of challenging behavior
Usually done through “A-B-C” analysis

14. A-B-C Data

15. ABC Data Collection Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA)
The process of obtaining information on events which precede and follow a behavior to determine which antecedents and consequences are reliably associated with the occurrence and nonoccurrence of the behavior

16. ABC Data Antecedent Behavior Consequence
Record events or interactions that happen DIRECTLY BEFORE the behavior occurs. Examples: “teacher gave instruction to clean up” or “fire alarm went off”.
Behavior
Should include only OBSERVABLE behavior. Do NOT include guesses at internal states such as emotions. Be as SPECIFIC as possible. Example: "hit my hand with a ruler hard enough to leave a mark," "Yelled dummy directed toward staff," "picked up math paper and ripped into many pieces“.
Consequence
Should be what occurs DIRECTLY following the behavior, including verbal interactions from staff/ peers, physical interactions from staff, any type of prompting, etc. Example: “gave no verbal response and physically prompted him to pick up toy truck by taking his arm and gently guiding him to the truck" “said “not ok. Time to clean up and pointed to toy”.

17. ABC Data Sheet Example Date Staff Time Start Time End Activity
Antecedent
Behavior
Consequence
Comments

18. ABC Data Sheet-Checklist Example
ABC Recording Form
Observer:
Student:
Date:
Activity:
Start Time:
End Time:
Antecedent
Behavior
Consequence
Additional Notes
Relevant Info about the environment
Given direction
Task Demand
Change in routine
Peer in close proximity
Transition
Verbal statement made to student (adult/peer)
Other ______________
Bolt/Leave Demand
Cry
Screaming
kick
swear
Prompted break
Ignore
Model appropriate behavior
Provide Assistance by: ___________________
Terminate Activity
*Individualized*

19. ABC Summary Analysis Examples

20. ABC Summary Analysis Examples

21. Other Information Learned Through Direct Observation
Frequency
How many times did the behavior occur?
Duration
How long did the child engage in the behavior?
Latency
How long did it take the student to respond to the instruction?
Intensity
What did the behavior look like on a scale of …?
Time of Day (Scatterplot)

22. Frequency How often the behavior occurs
Tallies, clickers (color coded, labeled), pennies/items transferred from one pocket to the other pocket, objects in a container
Student:
Observer:
Date/Time:
Target Behaviors & Definitions:
Time
Behavior 1
_________
Behavior 2
__________
Behavior 3
Behavior 4
___________
Behavior 5
Behavior 6
8:00
8:30
9:00

23. Duration How long the behavior occurs Stop watches, timers, clocks
Student:
Observer:
Target Behavior & Definition:
Date Bx
Start
Stop
Daily Duration

24. Intensity How “much” of a behavior occurs
Ex. Self-Injury-Biting Arm Intensity Rating Scale
Rating Scale (1-4)
1=Mouth on arm, no visible mark
2=Mouth on arm, red mark
3=Mouth on arm, indentations of teeth visible
4=Mouth on arm, broken skin

25. Interval Recording
Coding the presence or absence of a specific behavior during a predetermined time period
May include frequencies of behavior within an interval or measures of the rate of the behavior

26. Interval Recording Data Sheet
Partial interval- record whether the behavior occurred at any time during the interval
Whole interval- record whether the behavior occurred throughout the interval
Momentary time sampling- record whether the behavior occurs at the moment the interval ends.
Student:
Observer:
Target Behavior & Definition:
Date/Time:
10-Second Intervals
Interval/
Duration 10 20 30 40 50 60 PI + - WI
MTS

27. Activity What behaviors did you observe? Choose one
How would you measure that behavior?

28. Graphic Displays
Use of line, bar or pie graphs to describe the occurrence of a behavior over time or the proportions of behavior
Very helpful in evaluating the effectiveness of a treatment procedure and in determining when to change a procedure

29. Line Graph Example

30. Line Graph Example

31. Line Graph Example

32. Activity Record this data on graph paper

33. Graph

34. Activity Record this data on graph paper

35. Graph

36. Skill Building

37. Reinforcement
Definition: Reinforcement occurs when a particular behavior is followed by an immediate consequence that results in strengthening the behavior.
Is unique to each individual
Is ever changing
Moment to Moment
With experience
With development
Needs to be flexible

38. Reinforcer Assessment Activity
Rank in order
1=most desired
5=least desired

39. Reinforcer Assessment Activity
Rank these activities 1 to 5
Hike in the woods
Massage
A day of shopping with friends
Reading by a roaring fire
Trying out a new recipe

40. Reinforcer Assessment Activity
Consider the variability of preference
Within the group
Within yourself on a given day

41. Reinforcer Assessment Methods
Interview
Individual
Others in the individual’s life
Observation
Standardized Assessments Comparative Trials
“Forced Choice”

42. Forced Choice

43. IEP Goal Sample
By November 2011, Kevin will demonstrate his understanding of quantity by identifying, ordering, and labeling different objects to numbers with 90% accuracy.
Obj. 1: by April 2011, Kevin will identify 1:1 correspondence of a set of objects 1-10 with 90% accuracy

44. Ex of Assessment

45. Program

46. Data sheet

47. Activity
By November 2011, Joe will make no more than one threat/act of aggression (towards self or others) as defined by attached behavior plan per day.
Objective 1:By January 2011, Joe will make no more than 4 threats/act of aggression towards others or himself per day.

48. Activity What data would you record to come up with objectives/goal?
What data would you collect?
How/when would you record data for this objective?
Who would record the data?
Practice…

49. Acquisition Graph

50. Acquisition Graph

51. Task Analysis
A process by which a task is broken down into it’s component parts.
Used to increase an array of skills such as daily living tasks.

52. Example of hand washing TA

53. Example of Zipping Coat TA

54. Final Activity Small Group Choose a student/behavior/skill
Develop a process for data collection
Who is going to record data?
How and what kind of data will you take?
When will you record the data?
Develop a data collection system/form

55. Resources Staples (timers, graph paper) Different Roads to Learning