Observation procedure for child behaviors
Children in FACET classrooms were observed during three time periods: Observation
Time 1 (T1) occurred during a 2-week baseline period prior to the development and
implementation of a CBSP for FOC children; this provided pre-intervention (baseline) data
for all children. Observation Time 2 (T2) occurred 5–6 weeks following implementation of
a CBSP for FOC children, but prior to the development and implementation of an
intervention plan for GEN children; this provided a second baseline for GEN children and
implementation data for FOC children. Finally, Observation Time 3 (T3) occurred 11–12
weeks following implementation of a CBSP for FOC children and approximately 6 weeks
following implementation for GEN children; this provided post-intervention measurement
for all children. For every observation period (T1, T2, and T3), children were observed for
two sessions, separated by 5–8 days.
Classroom observers (graduate students in school psychology) were trained by an
expert coder who assisted in the development of the observation procedures. Observers
received three 2-h training sessions that included step-by-step explanations and videotape
practice in using two child-observation procedures (described below). Immediately prior to
each data-collection period, reliability was evaluated using videotapes of classrooms and
comparing each observer’s code with the expert trainer. Any observer whose agreement
with the expert fell below 80% was retrained to a criterion of 95% agreement.
The first procedure was guided by the Classroom Competence Observation (CCO)
form. The CCO form is part of the Functional Assessment and Intervention System
(Stoiber, 2004); it was developed based on research and teacher judgments about
classroom behaviors of children that contribute to competence and success in preschool,
kindergarten, and first-grade classrooms (e.g., Feil, Walker, Severson, & Ball, 2000). The
CCO provides a format for recording two categories of positive behavior linked to
successful classroom performance and four categories of challenging behavior that
teachers find most difficult to accommodate. The first category of positive behavior, Social