SymTrend for Behavior Data Tracking

There is a significant need for low-cost, technology-supported power and efficiency for behavioral observations of children receiving special education services. An effective IEP requires intensive school and home-based (pre-K) behavioral monitoring: iterations of data collection, progress charting, and team communication. The typical technologies used to do behavioral monitoring (pencil and paper, calculators, meetings, and telephone calls), however, lack power and efficiency. That is, they lack the data collection versatility and data analytic acuity required to accommodate the wide range of student needs (i.e., power) in a timely, economically feasible fashion (i.e., efficiency). This lack of power and efficiency often cripples the IEP process it is meant to support.

SymTrend is building a four-component platform with a) forms creation software for data collection and charting, b) data collection with a digital pen, mobile phones/computers, c) data charting, and d) team communication for timely IEP implementation. The system is treatment method independent (e.g., appropriate for ABA, sensory integration, Floortime, TEACCH). All professionals working with a child can select the data recording device and methodology that suits their needs. Data collected from all sources can be charted together.

INTEGRATION OF DATA INTO ONE RECORD ACCESSIBLE BY ALL TEAM MEMBERS

Data from each program a child is working on are now plotted on separate sheets and are stored in a separate sections of a looseleaf in the classroom. It is very difficult to determine if the patterns of behavior over time are consistent from one discipline to the next. Did the child perform differently in his discrete trial training on days he had a sensory diet from the OT? That question often cannot be answered with the given methods of collecting and storing paper forms. Electronic data collection and charting provides an easy means to display the data in combination, across disciplines, with access to all professionals. Context information such as what is going on at home, the health of the child, bullying issues, etc. can be linked to all data collected. We can finally investigate whether patterns of behavior in one type of therapy interact with or are completely independent with that going on in another.

The attachment below displays common paper forms for behavioral observations and electronic versions of those forms.

Dr. Minna Levine will be making use of the Anoto digital pen technology to aid data collection. Similar devices with special paper have been develop to aid data collection for therapists and teachers working with students with autism, such as Abaris by researchers at George Tech, Dr. Gregory Abowd, Dr. Julie Kientz and others. Here is a link for details: http://home.cc.gatech.edu/julie/24--