ECE 1003

Observation and Assessment

Of Young Children
Week 7
 Event Sampling

What?
The ABC Event Sampling format for investigating
the causes and consequences of an event.
• A planned recording of a selected
and repeated behaviour (as such, one
must first define the behaviour)
• More appropriate if event occurs at
odd times or infrequently
 ABC Analysis Title

• Setting:
• Date: Time:
• Observer: Child/age:
• Behavior:
• Time Antecedent Event Behavior Consequence
• Identify reasons or causes for a particular
behaviour or the conditions under which the
behaviour occurs and find ways to control it
• Precise and focused versus raw data of the
narratives
• Could be focusing on either positive or
negative behaviour e.g. pro-social behaviour,
biting, problem solving
 Example:

Setting: Jenny’s home Age: 3:8

Aim: To find out about Jenny’s liking for green.
Day/ Immediate Antecedent Behaviour Consequence
Time Context Event
3/2/07 Living room Jenny lays Jenny colours Jenn
4.45p.m. Jenny out the the cow green. to colour the
takes out colour Her mother cow green. a picture
pencils and asks, “Why
colouringbegins to is the cow green?”
books. colour. Jenny says, “I
like green.”
4/2/07 Bedroom Jenny’s mother Jenny cries and Jenny’s
9.14 a.m. Getting is dressing says, “I want the mother takes
ready to Jenny up. She green one. No out the green go out
picks a pink pink.” dress and she for dinner. dress for Jenny.
stops crying.
 General characteristics:

• Closed method of observation

• High degree of selectivity
• High degree of inference
 Advantages
• Know what behaviour to look for (focused and
more precise data)
- analysis becomes easier
• More objective than some methods as
behaviour has been defined
• Useful in examining infrequent behaviours
• Easily understood by other professionals and
parents/ carers
 Disadvantages
• Closed method as only focuses on a specific
behaviour
• Limited information/ detail (compared to
narratives)
• Time to be allocated to complete task
• Difficult to observe a group of children
(compared to checklist)
• Child may be absent for some time after
first session
 Examples of behaviour to be observed:

• demonstration of acts of empathy and

sympathy towards others
• emerging skills of independence
• Scratching
• spitting
• disruptive behaviour (e.g. snatching,
interfering with activities, throwing things)
• poor or loss of self-control
 Why?

• Rationale
• Aim
• A reported concern?
• Confirmation of behaviour?
• Decide ahead the event or behaviour you
want to study, bearing in mind the
positive and negative behavioural
aspects of a child
• You need a rationale that defines the
event or behaviour, followed by an aim
of the observational study
 Examples

Rationale:
Helmi’s teacher highlighted that he often
disturbs other children in class. Upon checking
with his parents, Helmi does not seem to
show such behaviour at home.
A concern?
Aim:
To find out why Helmi often disturbs the other
children in class.
Rationale:
Wendy has always been a cheerful and
happy child. However, lately, she seems
to get upset quite easily and snaps at her
friends at times.
A concern?
Aim: ?
Rationale:
Sean, who is only 2:2, seems to be
extremely helpful for his age and able to
share things out with his siblings and
cousins.
Confirmation of behaviour that is in line
with
his age?
Aim: ?
• Patterns?
• Causes - provoked or not?
• Reinforcement?
How?

• Wait for it to happen

• Predictability?
• Observe for how long?
 When it happens – record

• Include contextual information (e.g. physical,

social and cultural setting, activity, time)

• Observe for as long as necessary - 3 days, one

week or more? Until enough samples have
been collected
 The ABC method

• Introduced by Bell and Low in 1977

• A narrative record broken down into three part
• Antecedent event – what happens prior to the
observation or what leads to the observed behaviour

• Behaviour – the behaviour in study (what

the child says and does: positive or negative)

• Consequence – what happens following the

observed behaviour
 Captures information such as:

• Time
• Context
• People involved (adults and children)
• Actions of people involved
• Language or response of people involved
The method helps to identify what or who
might have led to each event or incident.

Examples:
• A particular child or group of children that
present problems
• Any form of bullying which is occurring
• If a child responds positively or negatively to
one form of discipline
Setting: Colin’s preschool Age: 3:5
Aim: Kicking behaviour; striking out at other children.
Day/ Immediate Antecedent Behaviourconsequence
Time Context Event
11/7/07 Playground, Colin is waiting Colin kicks Jane cries and
8.45 a.m. Playtime for his turn to Jane at her tells the
go on the slide. leg. Teacher. Colin
Jane cuts in continues to play on
the slide.

13/7/07 Play corner Colin is Colin frowns The teacher

10.07 a.m. The children playing alone. at James. walks up to
are free James comes Colin stands them and
to choose any over and puts up and kicks takes Colin activity.
a block on James in the away by the
Colin’s head. leg. arm. Colin starts to cry.
• Shows that Colin responded to an
interference and did not initiate the kicking
behaviour.

• Intervention strategies to help Colin

control his behaviour?
 Example
Brief description of child:
Carl is four years and one month old and is the
youngest in the family of three siblings. His
eldest
brother is at college while his sister is in
Primary Five. Carl’s classmates at the child care
centre include Daisy and Michael (both are 6:0),
Cressa (4:6) and Vinod (3:2).
 Rationale:

During the last two weeks, it was observed that

Carl likes to disturb his friends, when they are
working or playing. However, he would
eventually say ‘sorry’ to them immediately after
his disruptive act without anyone telling him to
do so.
Aim:
To find out why Carl always likes to disturb his
friends when they are doing their work or
playing and apologises after doing so.
 Event samples of Carl’s disruptive behaviour

• No./ Place
• Date/ Time
• Antecedent Event
• Behaviour
• Consequence
• 1
• Class-room
• 7/7/07
• 8.55 a.m.
• Carl is playing with his toy cars while Cressa is playing with some puppets
nearby.
• Carl steps on the puppet beside Cressa. Then he grins and says, “Oops,
sorry!”
• He sits next to Cressa but Cressa tells him, “Go away!” and keeps playing
with the puppets on her own. After about 30 seconds, Carl walks away.
• 2
• Play corner
• 7/7/07
• 9.12 a.m.
• Carl is playing with some toy animals while Vinod
is seated near him playing with Lego.
• Carl walks up to Vinod and takes away a few
pieces of Lego. A few seconds later, he returns
them and says, “Here, sorry.”
• Vinod continues playing with his Lego without
saying a word to Carl. Carl just stares at Vinod.
• 3
• Class-room
• 9/7/07
• 10.23 a.m.
• Carl watches Daisy threading beads at the table.
• Carl walks towards Daisy and takes away the
basket of beads, making the beads fall onto the
floor. He says, “Sorry,” while laughing.
• Daisy shouts, “Carl!” when the teacher walks up to
them. Carl picks up the fallen beads and puts them
on the table.
• 4
• Snack area
• 10/7/07
• 11.00 a.m.
• Carl is drinking his juice from a cup when Michael
comes and sits next to him. Michael places his bowl of
cookies in front of him.
• Carl uses his elbow and pushes the bowl away from
Michael. Carl puts down his cup and then says, “Sorry,
Michael.”
• Michael grabs his bowl and yells, “Teacher, you see
Carl!” Carl turns to Michael and just smiles.
• Any consistent/ regular pattern in the
behaviour?
• Provoked/ unprovoked behaviour?
• Reinforcement of behaviour?
• Background of child?
• The event sampling observation method
allows one to analyse the predefined
behaviour more easily
• What action(s) to be taken then in this case?