|
|
Click here to watch a video clip about this topic. We have designed unique, networked charting software that enables each clinician, case manager and teacher, and student to monitor objectively the student’s progress on each behavior that he or she is working on. This can be done from any computer in the school or even from a staff member’s own home.
The charts display not only behavior frequencies, but also other dimensions of interest such as the student’s weight, the frequency with which any restraint is used, etc. These charts are also available to parents and agencies online through our Parent/Agency website. A parent can watch the progress of a child daily and also be immediately aware of every single change that is made in the treatment program and what results it is having. The charts on this website are accompanied by an explanation to the reader of how to read them.
The following are sample daily, weekly and monthly behavior charts for a sample student. Under each chart is an explanation of the chart. The data that are displayed in the daily chart are the same data that are also displayed in the weekly and monthly chart. A yearly chart view is also available in the charting software, although a sample of the yearly chart is not illustrated below.
Figure 1. Sample Daily Chart Each day we record the total number of occurrences of each problem behavior of each student. This data is entered daily into a central database and is available for view on charts like this at every computer in the school, by means of a proprietary charting program that JRC has developed. This chart, for example, shows the daily total of aggressive behaviors for one of our students during the seven month period from August 22, 2000 through March 22, 2001. The heavy green lines are Sunday lines and the lighter lines are for Monday through Saturday. The specific components that were counted as examples of aggressive behavior are shown in the bottom margin of the chart as "Components." The chart shows that from August 22, 2000 to January 15, 2001, the behavior varied from 0/day to over 300/day and showed a gradual decrease (the frequency divided by a factor of 1.08 from week to week). On January 15, 2001, a new treatment procedure was added to the student’s program. This caused an immediate drop in the daily frequency of the student’s aggressive behaviors to near-zero levels. The behavior remained at these levels during the rest of the period shown on the chart.
Figure 2. Sample Weekly Chart This weekly chart shows the weekly totals of the same student and the same behavior data that is displayed on the daily chart shown in Figure 1. During the first 21 weeks, the behavior showed a steady decrease. The weekly total for aggression was dividing by a factor of 1.84 every 5 weeks during that 21-week period. The new treatment procedure caused the weekly totals to drop immediately by a factor of approximately 100.
Figure 3. Sample Monthly Chart On this chart each data point (dot) represents the total for one month for the same behavior (aggression) and same student whose daily and weekly charts are shown in figures 1 and 2. During the first five months, the monthly totals average approximately 700 to 800 per month. After the introduction of the new treatment procedure, the frequency of aggression dropped immediately to a level of approximately 0-2/month. |
This
software displays the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly frequencies for
each of the separate behaviors being treated, such as Aggressive
Behaviors, Health Dangerous Behaviors, Destructive Behaviors, etc. It also
allows the user to view groupings of behaviors such as Total Inappropriate
Behaviors or Total Interfering Behaviors. These charts enable the
Once
each week, Dr. Israel and the 
