Preference Assessment

Maryceline Josephson

EDU 348

Participant’s Background

The student who participated in this assessment was a twelve-year-old boy named

Anthony. Anthony has autism and is non-verbal. He will occasionally nod or shake his head,

depending on who is talking to him. Although he is twelve and in sixth grade, he functions on a

second grade level. Anthony is very well behaved and according to his teacher, Miss Johnson,

he has little to no behaviors. Miss Johnson also warned me that Anthony has Diabetes and had

to follow a specific food schedule. With this information, I decided not to bring a snack in for

him.

I was able to observe Anthony for myself while I conducted this assessment. He, indeed,

displayed a phenomenal amount of positive behavior. He was enjoyable to work with and

seemed to love the different items that I chose. Miss Johnson set me and Anthony outside in

the hallway. She gave us two chairs and a desk and put a screen behind us so that there was

little to no distractions. The materials that were chosen were a small ball, crayons, stickers,

Play-dough, and a toy car. Miss Johnson said that he loved playing with play-dough and stickers.

She also suggested an IPad to be used; however, I decided not to use that because he typically

uses it to watch videos and I did not think that there would be enough time for him to watch a

video. I brought in the ball, crayons and a toy car and I am overall pleased with the outcomes of

the assessment.
Results

There were six sessions with five trials in every session for the preference assessment.

Miss Johnson had previously said that Anthony likes being a “helper” therefor, I began the

assessment asking him if he wanted to be my “helper”. He gave a slight nod and a small smile. I

immediately placed all of the objects on the desk in front of him and asked him which toy

should we play with first? He chose the stickers and paper. I thought that this would be the

object that he picked the most; however, it was only the second most desired object. After

allowing him to play with the stickers while I logged in the information, I asked him which

object we should play with next. Throughout the assessment, Anthony seemed to be rather

consistent. The tables listed below display which item Anthony preferred and the data that was

collected from the assessment. The calculations that created the data listed below was found

by dividing the number of times an item was selected by the number of times it was presented.

The Ball was his favorite; he chose it 75% of time. The second object he chose was the stickers

at 35% of the time. I was surprised that Anthony chose Play-dough 25% of the time. This is

surprising because Miss Johnson had told me that he loves to play with Play-dough. Anthony

seemed to really enjoy playing with the car; however, he only chose it 22% of the time. The

item that he chose last was the crayons. He chose it only 15% of the time.

Session 1 Date: 11/29/18

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Total
Ball N Y 2
Crayons N N N N 0
Stickers Y 1
Play-dough N N N Y 4
Car N N Y 3
Session 2 Date: 11/29/18
Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Total
Ball N Y 2
Crayons N N Y 3
Stickers Y 1
Play-dough N N N N 0
Car N N N Y 4

Session 3 Date: 11/29/18

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Total
Ball Y 1
Crayons N N N N 0
Stickers N Y 2
Play-dough N N N Y 4
Car N N Y 3

Session 4 Date: 11/29/18

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Total
Ball Y 1
Crayons N N N N 0
Stickers N Y 2
Play-dough N N Y 3
Car N N N Y 4

Session 5 Date: 11/29/18

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Total
Ball Y 1
Crayons N Y 2
Stickers N N N Y 4
Play-dough N N Y 3
Car N N N N 0

Session 6 Date: 11/29/18

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Total
Ball Y 1
 Crayons N N Y 3
Stickers N N N N 0
Play-dough N Y 2
Car N N N Y 4

Hierarchy Item Chosen/Presented Percentage

#1 Ball 6/8 75%
#2 Sitckers 5/14 35%
#3 Play-dough 5/20 25%

#4 Car 5/22 22%

#5 Crayons 3/20 15%

The results from this assessment could be used in two different ways. First, it can be

used as a reinforcement. Because the assessment displayed that Anthony preferred the ball

over all of the items, his teacher can use this information to reinforce positive behavior. If she

notices that he is performing especially well, she may reward him with some time playing with

the ball. Another way the information received from this data could be used is through

consequences. If Anthony is displaying any challenging behavior for the classroom or school or

is not doing what the teachers asks, Miss Johnson can take away the ball as a consequence to

his behavior.

Reflection

Although I did not realize it at first, the preference assessment project was extremely

beneficial to me. Before the assessment began, I was very nervous. I was not certain how it

would go. I was nervous that the student would not cooperate and participate in the

assessment. Once I was there and sitting down with the student, all of my fears had gone away.
He was extremely sweet and wonderful to work with. One of the things that I found challenging

was personally asking for the toy he was playing with back. He willingly gave up his toy

whenever I asked; however, I saw how much he enjoyed playing with the toy that I did not

want to ask for it back. I found it interesting that, although he was non-verbal, I felt like we

were having a conversation. I would talk to him and there would be no response; however, I felt

like I knew his response. If there was something I would do differently, would probably ask for a

bigger table. We had a small desk and it was difficult to place all of the items on the desk

without them falling off. Anthony was a very special child, it was an honor and a privilege

working with him. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to complete this assessment

especially with Anthony.