Oscar Off Task Behavior

Oscar is a twelve year old student with autism in seventh grade at Marcy Open School. He receives extra academic and social support at an Autism Spectrum Disorder resource room. The behavior I will focus on for this data collection is anytime Oscar displays being off task. This is any time the student is not looking at the teacher or material, or task to which the teacher is referring to. Also, when students lips are not zipped (meaning, the student is not quite, and following group directions). For example: not looking at a book being read, not looking at an activity being modeled by the teacher, talking with peers or himself when working on assignment. This does not include times when Oscar talks with peers during group work, quietly mumbles, hums, or

I used partial interval recording to measure the off task behavior since it occurs so quickly and it is hard to catch it or simply count it. My operational definition was superb. It was clear and I could easily observe it when Oscar displayed the behavior. However, at times, I was confused on whether Oscar was off task or whether he was internalizing/ processing information the teachers were giving him. Overall, I would not change this definition because it helps me measure and easily absorb the off task behavior. My measure of behavior captured the target behavior relatively well. My partial recording system provided me with an estimation of frequency and during of Oscar’s off task behavior. It also gave me information about where behaviors were occurring across the three. Nevertheless, partial recording system required my undivided attention. I had to pay attention to multiple tasks at once. I had to check the interval time and look closely at Oscar’s behavior simultaneously. My recording system does not provide the frequency of the off task behavior within the interval; hence, in a way it underestimates the behavior