Behavior Observation
A child's behavior is critical to his or her success in life. Behavior change efforts require careful observation over many time periods, children, and settings to identify those actions that truly interfere with a child's social or academic competence and then to measure the degree to which those deeds occur. The initial observation data provides a baseline or starting point for the teacher. After the initial observation period, all subsequent charting will be compared to the initial data to determine whether behavior change has occurred. Behavior
is assessed in many ways. It is often assessed through various types of
observation. Observational measurement tools include event, interval, time-sampling, duration, latency, A-B-C and
anecdotal recording.
Event recording involves making tally marks to record every time a specific behavior occurs. An
event recording form be may used to record the behavior events each time the child performs the behavior in question. A teacher may wish to decrease the number of times a child performs behaviors like speaking out of turn,
leaving his seat, or bumping into other students. The teacher will select one behavior, carefully define it, then carry a clipboard (or another means to count or track a behavior) and record every time it occurs.
More to come...
