Results Using the MotivAider - Project 3

We thank Trina Spencer from the Hawthorne Country School, Hawthorne, New York for offering to share these results with other educators. [e-mail Trina].

Prepared by Trina D. Spencer, MS, BCBA
ABA 2002 Poster Presentation
Hawthorne Country Day School
Hawthorne, New York

Project 3 - MotivAider Prompts Observer to Record Data

Whenever an observer walks into a class with head phones and beep tape, the students ask what they are listening to, and their cover is blown. Collecting data during direct observations often needs to be discrete and undetectable by those being observed or others in the area.

The MotivAider was used for a variety of data collection tasks in the school. Student behaviors were recorded with ease using partial interval, whole interval, or momentary time-sampling procedures cued by the silent MotivAider. For conditioned toy play programs, the MotivAider was used to prompt recording of on-task verses off-task play. When the MotivAider vibrates, the observer records the data. Recordings can involve pencil-paper methods or counters.

The advantages of the MotivAider prompting system outnumber those of the traditional beep tape. The observers using the MotivAider reported that the MotivAider made the job of recording convenient, discrete, and effective.