Behavioral Observation: Technology and Applications in Developmental Disabilities

Thompson (psychology, Vanderbilt U.), Felce (psychological medicine, U. of Wales, UK), Symons (psychiatry, U. of North Carolina) present 20 contributions which treat the analysis of mental retardation on the individual level from a biobehavioral and transactional perspective which is made possible by the increasing use of sophisticated software programs which can manage large amounts of data relatively easily. The papers are divided into sections on the principles of behavioral observation, new technologies for observation, applications in residential and community settings, applications in education and families, and units of analysis and quantitative issues in analysis of observational data. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

A professional observing a student carries a "light pen" and a list of bar codes, each bar code signifying a specific behavior or occurrence in the student's environment. Each time the student displays a behavior, the observer runs the pen over the appropriate bar code. The pen records the codes and stores them for later analysis