Measurement Tool Types When Creating Target

Measurement Tool Types When Creating Target

When creating skill acquisition programs you will need to set the Measurement Tool you want to use for Data Collection of the target you are creating. Below is a break down of each Measurement Tool.

Trial-by-Trial (Including Opportunity-Based) Data

Purpose:
Used to track correct and incorrect responses for each learning trial or opportunity. This method is ideal for:

  • Skill acquisition programs where each trial matters.

  • Opportunity-based data collection, where data is recorded only when an opportunity naturally occurs (rather than running a fixed number of trials).

This allows teams to capture both structured teaching (e.g., discrete trials) and naturalistic opportunities (e.g., when a child independently labels a color during play).

How to Collect:

  • Present the instruction or SD or wait for a natural opportunity to occur.

  • Record if the response was correct, incorrect, or if prompting was used after each trial/opportunity.

  • Continue until all planned trials or the observation period ends.

  • Summarize by calculating % correct across trials or opportunities.

Example:

  • Discrete Trials: Teaching “touch nose” with 10 planned trials → Record a ✔ or ✘ for each.

  • Opportunity-Based: Tracking spontaneous peer greetings → Record each greeting opportunity and mark if it was correct or incorrect.


Alert
The most important part of setting up a Trial-by-Trial target in Welina is making sure you have created your prompt hierarchy templates during the system set up. You will be able to select the prompt hierarchy that best fits the targets current phase.

Frequency (and Rate) Data

Purpose:
Measures how often a behavior occurs. Useful for behaviors with a clear start and end.

  • Frequency: Count of occurrences.

  • Rate: Frequency divided by the length of the observation session (helps compare across sessions of different lengths).

How to Collect:

  • Each time the behavior happens, click + button. To remove press the - button. For clicker data entry click the number in the center of the target and type the # count in.

  • If using rate, record the frequency data which is automatically tied to the running session timer. Welina will calculate rate = frequency ÷ time.

Example: Child mands 15 times during a 30-minute session → Rate = 0.5 per minute.

Duration Data

Purpose:
Tracks how long a behavior lasts from start to finish. Best for behaviors that vary in length (e.g., tantrums, independent work).

How to Collect:

  • Start a timer the moment the behavior begins.

  • If behavior terminates but behavior end determined by off set you can press pause and then press start again to resume trial of data. 

  • When behavior ends, press pause and then save to record the total time of trial.

  • If the behavior happens multiple times, you can track each episode separately, Welina will calculate total cumulative duration.

Example: Tantrum lasts 4 minutes, later in session another tantrum lasts 2 minutes → Cumulative duration = 6 minutes.

Interval Data

Purpose:
Measures whether a behavior happens within set time intervals instead of counting every instance. This is helpful for behaviors that occur frequently or last for long periods.

Types

  • Whole Interval: Record YES only if the behavior occurs during the entire interval (e.g. client stayed in seat for the WHOLE interval).

    Info
    In the App, users only need to log if the target behavior STOPS occurring within the set interval. If the target behavior occurs for the whole interval, The App will auto-log this - users will not have to log that the behavior DID occur.

  • Partial Interval: Record YES if the behavior happens at any point during the interval (e.g. client engaged in disruption at any point in the interval).

    Info
    If the App, users only need to log if the behavior occurs at any point within the set interval. If the target behavior does not occur at any point during the interval, The App will auto-log this - users will not have to log that the behavior did NOT occur.

    • Momentary Time Sampling: Record YES only if the behavior is happening at the exact moment the interval ends (e.g. at the time the interval ended, the client was paying attention).

      Info
      In the App, users will receive a notification at the end of every interval to prompt them to record "Yes" or "No." This recording can be done directly from the notification, so that the user does not need to navigate back to the target.

How to Collect:

  1. Break the session into equal intervals (e.g., 30 seconds).

  2. At each interval, mark if the behavior meets the criteria for that type.

  3. Calculate % of intervals where the behavior occurred.

Example: 10-second intervals: If behavior occurs 7 out of 10 intervals (partial interval) → 70%.

Fluency/Rate Data

Purpose:
To measure how quickly and accurately a learner performs a skill. Best for skills that should be performed quickly, or with automaticity (e.g. sight words, simple addition, tacting common objects). Fluency can also be used to promote maintenance and generalization of skills.

How to Collect

In Welina Web:
1. Select timer “Start Type”

Lesson Start (Count up): Timer will start when the session is started and will count up from 0 until the user stops or pauses the timer.

  1. Manual Start (Count up): Timer will start when the user manually starts the timer and will count up from 0 until the user stops or pauses the timer.
  2. Manual Start (Count down): Timer will start when the user manually starts the timer and will count down from a time interval specified by the user (e.g. 1 minute).
In Session:
1.  Start timer (manually during session or by starting the session).
2.  Log each instance the target behavior occurs while the timer is running using the “+” and “-“ signs.
3.  Pause timer based on program instructions, or wait for timer to finish counting down.
4.  Save entry to log how many times the target behavior occurred within the recorded interval (e.g. Learner named 20 sight words in 30 seconds)
5.  Collect data for additional intervals as instructed by program supervisor.

Example: A learner is working on identifying sight words. The user selects “Manual Start (Count down)” and specifies the interval of “1 minute” in Welina Web. In session, the user manually starts and runs this timer 3 times. In the first interval, the learner identifies 30 sight words in 1 minute. In the second interval, the learner identifies 40 sight words in 1 minute. In the third interval, the learner identifies 50 sight words in 1 minute.

Anecdotal Data

Purpose:
To capture a descriptive, story-like record of events during a session. Unlike ABC, this is unstructured and focuses on context and qualitative details rather than strictly defining antecedent, behavior, and consequence.

How to Collect:

  1. Observe the client during a session or event.

  2. Write down what you see and hear in chronological order.

  3. Focus on relevant details.

Example: If tracking acceptance of new foods you might track whether child accepted a bit (trial based) and then document the new food -> "One bit of banana"

ABC Data

Purpose:
To identify patterns in behavior by recording what happens before (Antecedent), during (Behavior), and after (Consequence). This structured format helps determine potential behavior functions.

How to Collect:

  1. A (Antecedent): Write down what happened right before the behavior (e.g., instructions, events, environment).

  2. B (Behavior): Objectively describe the behavior (what it looks/sounds like, not why).

  3. C (Consequence): Record what happened immediately after the behavior (attention, removal of task, etc.).

  4. Keep each entry brief, objective, and time-stamped if possible.

Example: 

  1.  Teacher tells child, “Clean up toys.”
  2. Child throws toys and screams.
  3. Teacher removes toys and gives child a 2-minute break.


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