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Continuous Measurement - RBT
6
Continuous
Measurement
Frequency
Frequency is the number of times a certain behavior has happened in a specific period of time
Advantages
Frequency
An advantage of using the frequency method is that it can be done unobtrusively and does not need to interfere with instruction. It can be done for a designated short period of time across multiple days to establish a pattern of behavior.
Disadvantages
Disadvantages of this measurement are that it cannot easily be used for high frequency behaviors or with behaviors that occur over extended periods of time (for example, staring out the window). It should not be used with behaviors that vary in intensity.
How to?
Frequency is simple counting of how many times a behavior occurs during a designated period of time. Those designated periods might be a minute, an hour, or a day. It is most useful with behaviors that are discrete and short in duration
Whats needed?
Latency recording requires patience, some way to monitor the time (stopwatch, timer, wall clock) and something to record data with
Example
Duration
Duration documents the length of a behavior by recording the time from the behavior beginning and ending. This measurement is helpful when your primary concern is the length of time the student engages in the behavior (off task, out of seat, tantrums).
Advantages
Duration
An advantage of this measurement is that you sometimes can see gradual improvements in duration before you see changes in frequency of the behavior. This measurement gives you both forms of data. It can be most beneficial when you are measuring a behavior that includes behaviors that are too frequent or harder to measure (pencil tapping, talking to peers).
Disadvantages
A disadvantage of this method is that it is sometimes difficult to get accurate measurements unless staff only has the responsibility of observation during this time.
How Too?
Summarizing duration data includes the calculation of the sums of all the durations divided by the number of occurrences.
For example. Alex had three occurrences of out of seat behavior (125 seconds, 365 seconds and 45 seconds) during the observation period. 125 + 375 + 40 = 540/3 =180 seconds or 3 minutes average per out of seat behavior.
Whats needed?
This measurement requires an instrument to track time (stopwatch, timer, wall clock) and a form for marking the start and stop times.
Example
Latency
Latency recording is a different form of duration recording that is used when you want to know how long it takes for a client to begin performing a particular behavior once the opportunity has been presented (given a verbal cue or event demand). For example, if you request that a client begin working on an assignment, how long does it take for the client to comply with the request. This measurement can be used with behaviors that have a definitive beginning and end.
Advantages
Latency
An advantage of this measurement is that you can see gradual progress in responding more quickly to verbal cues. It can also be used to determine exactly when to prompt the use of a new skill or replacement behavior before the challenging behavior occurs. Advantage of latency is that it can be used to measure stimulus control in comparison to other measurement tools.
Disadvantages
A big disadvantage is the time it takes to monitor while not being able to focus on any other skills. A disadvantage of latency is that it requires precise timing that may be difficult to capture if the latency is relatively short.
How Too?
Summarizing latency data involves calculating the average latency by adding all the data together and dividing by the number of opportunities measured.
Ex. Sara took 60 seconds, 90 seconds, 50 seconds and 35 seconds to start 4 assignments this week. 60 + 90 + 50 + 35 = 235/4= 58.75 seconds is the average latency for starting on the assignments.
Whats needed?
Latency recording requires patience, some way to monitor the time (stopwatch, timer, wall clock) and something to record data with
Example
Inter-Response Time
The IRT is the time between problem behaviors, the time between the end of one presentation of the target behavior and the onset of the next occurrence of the same target behavior.
Advantages
IRT
Advantage of this measure is that it correlates with rate, the longer IRT the slower the rate, the shorter the IRT the faster the rate
Disadvantages
Disadvantage to IRT is that the second response must occur within the observation session or else the data would be irrelevant.
How too?
To measure this, a therapist starts the timer once the presentation of the target behavior ends and then stops the timer once that same behavior begins again. For example, to measure the time between occurrences of a child’s head banging problem behavior a therapist would start the time on the clock when the child bangs their head on the wall the first time and then stop the timer when the child bangs their head on the wall the second time. The duration between bangs is the inter-response time.
Whats needed?
IRT Recording requires some way to monitor the time (stopwatch, timer, wall clock) and something to record data with
Example