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Behavior Tracker Pro 1.0 Behavior Data Collection for the Google Android Phone

Steve Maher, Liz Maher, MEd, BCBA

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Table of Contents

Introduction 4 PURPOSE   4 GETTING STARTED 4 FOUR MAIN VIEWS 4

Collecting Data 5 TAKE ONLY FREQUENCY AND DURATION DATA 5 TAKE ABC DATA 5 HIGH FREQUENCY DATA COLLECTION 7

Analyzing DATA 8 PER DAY GRAPH VIEWS 10 PHASE CHANGE LINES 10 ADJUSTING AXIS 11 VIEWING LEGEND 11 EXPORTING DATA 12

Saving Data 13 SAVING DATA 13

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Introduction Purpose: Behavior Tracker Pro is an application for iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Google Android and Palm WebOS smartphones that allows a BCBA, therapist, parent, teacher, aide or any other observer to discreetly and accurately take data in the client’s environment. This document will focus only on the Android based devices. Getting Started: Once you have purchased and installed BTP, simply launch the application by tapping on the BTP icon on your device. You will be presented with the image shown on the front page of this document. Collecting Data Four Main Views: Collect Data, Analyze Data, Manage People and Manage ABCs. The main screen is also known as the Collect Data screen. To navigate to other screens, activate the menu button on your Android based device. Three buttons appear. Later, we will use these three buttons to navigate to the other views to analyze data, manage people and manage ABC’s. Since we are already automatically at the Collect Data screen, let's take a look at the first data collection option, “Take Only Frequency and Duration Data”. Before we tap on that data collection option, let's define why we would want to choose Frequency and Duration over the other two options.

“Frequency and Duration data should be taken if we have already determined the function of the behavior. We have topographically defined the behavior and want to see how often that behavior occurs (frequency) and how long that behavior lasts (duration). The behavior could be something we want to see more of (sitting quietly) or an inappropriate problem behavior (talking during circle time). Either way, we know what the behavior is and we simply want to track it.”

- Liz Maher, Med, BCBA.

Selecting “Take Only Frequency and Duration” brings us to the “Choose a Client” screen. Here you can choose a client (the person whose behavior you are tracking) or we can hit the “plus” symbol at the top left hand corner of the screen to add a new client. There is no limit to the number of clients whose behavior you can track. After selecting a client or adding a new one, you will be taken to the “Choose Observer” screen after tapping the blue “Done” button. Here you can select yourself or add a new observer if you have not used BTP on this device before. Once you have selected both the client and the observer, and tapped on the blue “Done” button at the top right hand corner of the screen, you will be presented with the timer as shown below. As you can see, the timer screen is green. When you double tap the screen, it will start the timer and indicate that the timer has been started by turning red. When you double tap the

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screen again, the timer stops and reverts to green, ready for the next observed behavior. Frequency and duration data is easy to take with your Android based device. Double tapping was selected to avoid accidental starting of the timer with the brush of a hand. Exiting the timer screen requires a triple tap for the same reason. You must triple tap on the blue bar at the bottom to exit the timer screen. Each time that you start and stop the timer while in Frequency and Duration collection mode, you will be prompted to identify the behavior just observed.

For each observed behavior, you can start and stop the timer and simultaneously include a video capture as well. Video capture is optional and will allow you to record a video file to your devices internal memory to further document the behavior. Tap on the grey check box to activate the selection before starting the timer with a double tap on the main timer button. The recording screen will appear and you will need to tape the start and stop buttons on the recording screen to complete the data collection. When you are finished collecting frequency and duration data, exit the timer screen with a triple tap on the blue bar. Notice that exiting the timer screen brings you to the “Analyze Data” screen. We will describe the use of that screen later in this document. For now, please click on the menu button and select “Collect Data” from the choices revealed. You will find yourself back at the main screen. Take ABC Data: The “Take ABC Data” button from the main screen begins the same way our usage of the “Take Only Frequency and Duration Data” did. You are prompted to select a client and an observer. In both instances you can select an existing entry or add a new value by tapping on the plus symbol at the top left hand corner of the screen. The green timer screen is also identical as you collect ABC Data. Start and stop the timer and notice that upon stopping the timer you are presented with the following screen:

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Much like the client or observer selection screen, you can choose a built in Antecedent or add a new one by clicking on the plus symbol at the top left hand side of the screen. After selecting our Antecedent(s) (we can select none, one or many antecedents).

“Be careful when selecting an antecedent. It is important that we really know what the antecedent was if we are to collect good data and do the best possible job we can for the client.”

- Liz Maher, MEd. BCBA. Upon selection of your antecedent and hitting the blue “Done” button at the top right of the screen, you are prompted to select a behavior and finally a consequence. Note that in each of three ABC selection screens you can select an existing value or add a new one. BTP was designed to be flexible and extensible as our clients (students) vary greatly. Helpful Hint: **If you find that you are leaving the antecedent blank or are selecting “MO Unclear” often, you should consider a team meeting to better define your antecedents or possibly the behavior.**

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Once you have selected your consequence(s), you are brought back to the timer screen to again record any observed behavior. The overall routine of collecting ABC data is identical to Frequency and Duration Data collection except that each start and stop iteration of the timer in the ABC Data Collection mode asks you to define the antecedent, behavior and consequence. Other than that, Frequency and Duration Data collection and ABC Data collection are the same. High Frequency Behavior Data: The third and final data collection option from the main screen is the “High Frequency Behavior Data” option. This option can be thought of as a virtual clicker. You may know what behavior you are tracking but you want to know the rate of that behavior. Selecting “Take High Frequency Behavior Data” brings you to the following screen as in the image below.

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As with previous screens in BTP, you can select behaviors from the screen or add new ones. You can also use the “Select All” option to select all the currently defined behaviors. Once you have made a selection, you click on the blue “Done” button and you are presented with a data collection screen drawn with the behavior just selected. You can now single tap any behavior as it is observed. The tally will increment by one each time. The data will be plotted by rate of occurrences per minute on your Rate of behavior graphs. These behavior rate graphs are only visible when you double tap the chart, select “separate ABC’s” and then “Behavior Rate”. The behavior rate graphs are based only on the data collected in the high frequency data collection mode. Analyzing Data When you have finished taking data on a client, you can then analyze the data by tapping on the “Analyze Data” button at the bottom of the screen. The first step in analyzing your data is to select the client whose data you want to analyze. Each client that has been added will appear in the list. Tap on the client you are interested in analyzing. You will be presented with a choice to “Analyze Client Overall” or the ability to choose a specific day to analyze as shown below.

At this point you can choose “Graph this Data” and you will be presented with a screen similar to the one below:

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Note that when you display a graph, whether it is the overall view or a view of just one day, you have to double tap the screen to show the menu at the top and bottom of the screen. When you double tap the screen the menu looks like image below.

Now with the menu visible, you can adjust the X-axis, graph by Duration or Frequency, separate the data into ABC’s, move the view left or right if more data is available but doesn’t fit on the screen, draw the graph manually or export your data. After you have a couple days’ worth of data, explore these features. At any time, you can tap on your phones back button to go back. If you have chosen to collect data using the tally counter and want to view the rate of behaviors you would first need to go to “Analyze Client Overall”, then select “graph the data”. Because you want to view information about behaviors, once you are at the graphing page select “Separate ABCs” and you will see “Rate/bx” tab appear to the right of the “Duration” and “Frequency” tabs. Select “Rate/bx” and your graph of the rate of your selected behaviors will appear as shown below.

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Per day Graph Viewing: When you choose to analyze your data, you can graph overall or graph for a specific day. If you choose a specific day and graph the data, the “Adjust Axis” and “Separate ABCs” buttons are grayed out intentionally. These functions are only enabled when you have selected “Analyze Client Overall”. When you view the graph for a specific day, the data will be graphed by duration only. However, by counting the points on the graph that will give you the frequency of the behavior and by touching each point information about the behavior and the antecedent and consequence (if this type of data was taken) will appear. Phase change lines: Phase change lines are vertical blue lines that appear on both the overall graph and single day graphs. Throughout a treatment program new variables are introduced that may or may not have an effect on your client. Changes in behavioral procedures, changes in medication or diet, the introduction of a new person into the therapeutic setting or changes of any kind can be added to graphically show pre and post phase change results on the graph. You can add a phase change line in two ways. You can either add phase change lines throughout a specific day at specific times or you can select a specific day and add a phase change line for that entire day. If you want to add a phase change line for a specific time of day choose the “Analyze Data” screen, choose a client, choose the date from the list of “Analyze Specific Day”, and then select one of the specific times from the “Analyze Specific Time” list. Once you have chosen a specific time, you will see a purple “Add Phase Change” button. Clicking on the purple button brings up a dialogue box to enter the label for your phase change line. However by choosing this way of adding a phase change line you will only be able to view the phase change if you select the specific day not when you “Analyze the Client Overall”. In order to view a phase change line on the graph when you select “Analyze the Client Overall” you will need to add the phase change line to the entire day by selecting “Analyze Specific Day”. The manner in which data is stored in the BTP database necessitates that you select a specific data point upon which to apply the phase change line. The iPhone or iPod Touch

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needs to know where to draw the line and can do so only along a pre-existing point in time where data exists. Adjusting axis: Double tapping a graph and opening the top and bottom menu bars reveals an “Adjust Axis” button. This button is only visible in a graph of the overall data, not when you graph a single day. You can set both the start date and the number of data points to be graphed to zoom in on just the data you want to see.

Viewing legend: Viewing the legend is important when you have separated your data into ABCs. Accordingly, the legend button is only visible when you are viewing ABC data because a legend is not needed if you are viewing a single line frequency and duration data. Selecting various views with the “A”, “B” and “C” buttons in the middle of the bottom menu bar updates your legend to reflect the applicable values. Tapping on the “Hide Legend” message will retract the legend.

Figure 10 – Adjust Axis

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Exporting Data: Exporting data is one of the most sought after features in BTP. Consultants often want to send their data to themselves or others on their team for archival or offline analysis on a PC or a Mac. While looking at any graph, double tap to get to the top and bottom menus and select the “Export” button. A choice is then presented to export a picture (like Figure 11 above) or the raw data via email. If “CSV File” is selected, the data currently graphed will be sent in comma separated value format, which is readily importable to Excel, Numbers or any other spreadsheet

program. Once in Excel, you can manipulate your data in any way that you wish including graphing with the Excel graphing feature.

Displaying the legend

Exporting Data

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Saving Data Saving your data is important. With any device, you should backup your data on a regular basis. Exporting the data as discussed on the previous page is not a replacement. It is important to backup your device regularly. These backups can be used to restore your device in the event of a hardware failure or the loss of your device due to theft or an upgrade. If you do not regularly backup your device, you risk losing data. Exporting your data to images or comma separated values (CSV) files will preserve your data in an offline format, but this will not allow you restore your lost, stolen or damaged device. You can export data, but you cannot import so please take regular backups. The frequency of your backups should be defined by your perception of the importance of your data. This is a judgment call. If you plug your device in and backup every few days, this implies that you can “afford” to lose a few days worth of data. If you have questions about defining a backup schedule please feel free to email us at steve@behaviortrackerpro.com. We’re happy to help.