Data Keeping

Throughout the school year, I will be keeping track of each student, their grades, behaviors (good and bad), and how they are improving.  Below is an example of how I will be keeping track of student behavior.

Functional Behavior Assessment

• Child Information

Sara, 22 years old, Senior in college and the observation took place in Sara’s home.

• Problem Behavior

Sara’s problem is she leaves her shoes out on the floor after coming in the house through the front door. Her family constantly trips over her shoes and find the behavior to be disrespectful and unclean to their house. Sara does not realize that by her leaving her shoes behind may cause other family members to become irritated.  Her family members have to remind her repeatedly to place her shoes on the rack when she comes into the house.  This is for the safety of other family members in addition to the front room staying more organized. By Sara leaving shoes on the floor she could injure herself and others when walking through rooms or up the stairs. To correct this behavior Habeeba and I observed Sara and observed when and if she put her shoes back on the rack when walking in the door. I used the Frequency Recording to keep track of Sara’s progress during given times of the day for about four days today.  I chose to record it this way because It would give me a better idea of what times of the day she forgets to put her shoes away, if it has anything to do with being tired when she comes home, or if she truly forgets.

3. Interview

Interview with Sara’s Brother, Ismail;

Sara is Ismail’s younger sister; he described her as tall, funny, smart, assertive, hard working and loves to shop. According to Ismail, Sara is very organized and neat, except when it comes to putting things away.  Many of the items that she forgets to put away are usually anywhere but in her room.  This includes shoes.  In regards to her schoolwork, she is very prepared ahead of time and has everything color-coded and planned out for the school year by the first week of classes. She is a creative person, always baking and cooking up new recipes in the kitchen for her family and friends. He explained Sara has a busy schedule with work, school, and having a social life leaving little time to make sure each chore is done. Her organizational skills stick to her room and her items in her room, making anything outside of her room a problem. Ismail says it bugs him when he will come home late and her shoes will be in the way making him trip or squish her shoes. He states at home she has to be asked multiple times to do stuff including putting away her shoes. Ismail would love it if someone could get Sara to put away her shoes more often.

4. Observation Data (Frequency Chart)

Before the Intervention

In the collection of this data, I decided to use a frequency chart to record the necessary information.  A frequency chart is used when the recorder wants to know how many times the subject either completes or does not compete a given action.  In this case, I wanted to record how many times each day Sara would put her shoes away on the rack.  When she completed her behavior correctly, she was able to receive a coupon for buying make up, or was able to go and buy makeup on her own.  I used the days as a given period of time, and the specific times were when Sara came home and would be tested on her correct behavior.

5. Analysis of the data

Before the intervention, you can see that her behavior of putting her shoes away was very inconsistent.  After the intervention, her behavior changed dramatically changed for the better.

6. Hypothesis/Summary/Proposed Action

Before we used the incentives, I thought that this behavior planning was not going to work.  I figured that she would start off following the correct behavior and then fall behind and not care.  I was proved wrong when I took the data of the after affect.  The incentive that we used was the perfect way to change Sara’s behavior.  I think that as long as I provide Sara with incentives to buy makeup, she will keep up the positive behavior.  Once she has hit a plateau, I will slowly just give her verbal feedback on how she is doing and stay away from the makeup reward.