LAB 6: TALLY EVENT SAMPLING & ABC 1

Lab 6: Tally Event Sampling & ABC

Rachel Dodds

Michigan State University

Lab 6: Tally Event Sampling & ABC

Introduction

The purpose of this assessment is to follow up on a concern regarding Child As

challenging behaviors in the social domain. Additionally, the child was assessed in order to

better understand Child As current challenges and how to best support the child in developing

new skills, in the classroom. The results of the assessment will be used to determine whether a

referral to a specialist or multidisciplinary team for further evaluation is necessary.

Tally-Event Sampling and Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) observation were

used to assess Child A. Tally-Event Sampling is a record of skills or behaviors of [a child] that

documents the presence or absence of the target behavior or skills (Mindes, 2015, p. 61). This

assessment was used to measure how many times Child A exhibited specific challenging

behaviors in the social domain: crying or whimpering, taking a toy from another child, refusing

to share, striking a peer or teacher, striking an object or structure, throwing a toy or other object,

refusing to comply with teacher, yelling or screaming at others, withdrawing from social

interaction with a peer, and other acting out behaviors. Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence

(ABC) was paired with Tally-Event Sampling, in order to note what happens just before the

behavior (antecedent), the challenging behavior (behavior), and what happens immediately after

the behavior (Mindes, 2015, p. 119).

Two children were observed on November 17th, 2017 from 10:30 to 11:30 in the

morning. This observation occurred in the 24 to 36-month old classroom in the East Lansing

Child Development Laboratory, during free choice time and large group activity time.
LAB 6: TALLY EVENT SAMPLING & ABC 3

for an hour each to document the occurrences of challenging behaviors, as well as, the

events immediately preceding and following the behavior. The focus child, Child A, is a 31-

month old male. Child B is a 32-month old male.

Data
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Summary and Interpretation

As shown in Table 1, there were five instances recorded of Child A crying or

whimperingwhich was the majority of the challenging behaviors documented. Before the first

occurrence of crying, the teacher announced to the class that it was time to go to large group

Child A had been lying on the floor during clean up time prior to this. Afterwards, the teacher

told Child A that if he did not want to participate in large group time, that he could sit on the

couch (located in the back of the classroom). Before crying the second time, Child A decided to

come to large group and was sitting with a teacher, when the Head Teacher told the children that

they were going to read a book. When the child began to cry, a teacher sat next to the child and

rubbed his back. In regards to the third time the child cried, a teacher told the children that it was

time to put on their winter clothes to go outside immediately prior to this instance. After the

incident, the teacher instructed the child to find the gloves in his own bag and started helping the

child get ready for outside time. Before the fourth instance, Child A was sitting on a teachers lap

when another child walked up to the teacher and asked for help putting on her winter clothes.

The teacher then asked Child A to sit next to her while she helped the other childwhich is

when Child A began to cry. After, the teacher still continued to help the other child put on her

winter clothes while Child A sat next to her, crying. Prior to the final occurrence, the teacher said

it was time to go outside and then stood up and headed towards the door. The child started crying

and then followed the teacher to the door, reaching for her as she put on her own coat.

Also, Table 1 shows that Child A exhibited the behavior of yelling or screaming at

others. Before this happened, another child began to grab at the spoon that Child A was holding.

After Child A yelled, Go away!, a teacher came over to Child A to explain that the other child

was wanting to play with Child A and that screaming can make the other child feel sad.
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Additionally, Child A withdrew from social interaction with peers. Prior to this, Child A was

crying after the teacher said it was time for large group and then ran over to the couch towards

the back of the room. Afterwards, a teacher approached the child with a green ball and instructed

him to hold the green ball and practice calming his body.

According to the CDC Milestone Checklist (2016), a 24-month old child shows more

and more independence, gets excited when with other children, [and] plays mainly beside other

children but is beginning to include other children. At 36-months, a child shows a wide range

of emotions [and] may get upset with major changes in routine, additionally, if a child

doesnt want to play with other children (CDC Milestone, 2016), then a doctor should be

consulted. Compared to Child B, Child A socialized less with peers and communicated with

adults lesstypically when crying or exhibiting a challenging behavior. As shown in Table 2,

Child Bs challenging behaviors occurred while the child was laughingmeaning that it is

possible that the child thought the behavior was funnyor when another child came too close to

him. Child As challenging behaviors happened when there was a change in routine announced

or when another child approached or interacted with Child A. After each challenging behavior,

the child interacted with a teacher, as well.

Considering the CDC Milestones (2016), it is reasonable to conclude that there is cause

for concern for Child As social development since the child chose to be alone during free

choice, rejected peer contact by screaming, withdrawing to a corner of the room alone, and

various instances of the child crying. The original purpose of this assessment was to discover

what challenges Child A is having in the social domain and to determine what social skills the

child currently hasso that new skills can be taught. This was based on concern about the

childs social development compared to other children in the classroom. The findings of this
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assessment show that Child A needs assistance with learning skills for engaging in play with

other children, interacting with peers, and regulating emotions during schedule changesin

order to help the child be a part of all classroom activities with other children.

Follow-Up Recommendation

Based on the findings of this assessment in regards to concern about Child As social

development, I recommend that family members of informed of the assessment results and to

begin classroom-based interventionsin the form of teacher guidance to teach the child self-

regulation, identifying emotions, and interacting with peers. It will be essential that adults in the

classroom provide one-on-one coaching to help the child learn dialogue and behaviors for

engaging in play with another child and identifying when a child would like to interact with

Child A. This can be done in the form of learning activities for the entire classroom, aimed at

developing social skills using multiple presentation modestelling and showingsuch as

playing together with adult guidance, learning social skills through art, and practicing and

modeling social skills while eating lunch or snack. The only time I observed Child A speaking,

was when the child screamed at the other child when reaching for the spoon Child A was using.

For this reason, it may be necessary to show Child A the appropriate behaviors or use dialogue to

engage with children so that Child A can see multiple modes of presentation, and acquire the

necessary skills. At home, family members can practice teaching the child the same skills by

playing with the child and conversing with the child.

If these behaviors continue after monitoring the childs progress and providing guidance

with social skills for interacting with peers and self-regulation, I feel that it may be necessary for

the child to be referred to a specialist for further evaluation.

Reflection
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By doing this lab, I learned how to use observation to identify challenging behaviors and

note the events that happen before and after a behaviorsince these events can provide valuable

insight into what is causing the behavior. When an educator understands what is causing a

behavior, intervention and guidance can be provided to best help the child learn more positive

behaviors. This lab also allowed me to practice reporting to families and professionals to

communicate assessment results. It is highly likely that I will need to do this in my career as a

teacher, so it is essential that I understand how to frame results and information in a strength-

based approach so that families and I may work together to best help a child reach goals.
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References

CDC Milestone Checklist [PDF]. (2016, August 18). Atlanta, GA: Center for Disease Control

and Prevention.

Mindes, G. (2015). Assessing young children (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.