Frequency Count: Observation Tool In Children

According to the “you tube video”, Frequency count is an observation tool in which we are able to count how many times a behavior is occurring. It can be used for a single child, a group of children or a whole classroom.

The name of the child is Kevin, he is four years old, he is on the VPK program. He was diagnosed with ADHD. The observer is M. Barbosa. The date of the observation is 9/17/2015. I observed Kevin twice over a period of an hour in circle time. Each of the observation lasted 10 minutes on the 9/17/2015.

At 9:30 am, observation last 10 minutes. Kevin was in the sink area. He just finished washing his hands. The teacher called Kevin to go sit in circle time. All the other children were already sitting down in the carpet area.

Kevin looked at the teacher. He had a frowny face. His arms were crossed on his chest. His fists were closed and he stomped to the carpet area. Each child had a designated number on the carpet where to sit. He looked at the teacher, did a grumbling sound and sat on the number 9. The teacher told him to sit on his spot. He nodded his head. Teacher asks him: Is that the number 7, he answered no. The teacher replied: Then look for number 7. He said: I don’t want to sit there. I want to sit here. The teacher repeated again: Kevin, sit in number 7. He nodded his head. The teacher told him to get up and sit at the table. He said: No. He got up, look at his friend that was sitting on the carpet area next to him, stomps his right foot and kicks his friend’s foot. After that, he walks to the table, still with his arms crossed and fists closed, and then he pushes the chair and sat on a chair resting his arms on the table and looking in the direction of block area. The assistant teacher went to talk to him and asked him to go apologize to the child which he nodded the head.
10: 20 am, observation lasts ten minutes. This time, he was in the dramatic play area. He was trying to put the firefighters uniform on. A classmate approaches him with a telephone book, and told him. Kevin, do you want to call your dad? He shouted: “I am not talking to my dad”. He has a frowny face. He threw the firefighter outfit on top of the couch. Then he stomps his right foot, walks to the refrigerator, and reaches for all the empty cereal boxes that was on top of the refrigerator and threw them on the floor and across the room. The assistant teacher went to talk to him. He ran from her and he went out of the room. The director of the center that was passing by brought him back to the room before the assistant could get to him.
I asked the teacher if she would allow me to use an idea from the book. She agrees. From the 9:30 observation, after he went to sit down at a table, I comforted him by giving a soft doll to hug, and then I ask him if he wanted me to read a book. He said “Yes” I read a book- When I’m Feeling Angry by Trace Moroney. I talked to him about him kicking his friend and I suggested to him to apologize to the child and to the teacher which he did. I suggested that he goes to his spot and sit and he did.