Teaching · Special Education

See when it happens
before asking why.

Set up the student's day in time blocks, record each block's count for two weeks, and the grid shades itself. The page ranks the blocks, compares weekdays and writes down where the behavior clusters and where it never shows up.

Open the scatterplotWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the New special education teacher kit, $39 for 31 items.

The scatterplot

The worked example is two weeks for a made-up student, B-07, in twelve schedule blocks, with one absent day. Record your own, or start a new scatterplot.

Loading the scatterplot. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Teaching · Special Education$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A filled time-by-day scatterplot for one student and behavior, with totals by block and day, blocks ranked from most to least, weekday averages and a written summary of the patterns. Prints a blank data sheet for the classroom and the finished plot for the team; downloads the grid as a spreadsheet.
Who it is for
Special education teachers, behavior specialists and BCBAs, school psychologists, counselors and classroom teachers gathering information for a functional behavior assessment or a behavior support plan.
Format
Browser tool. Prints a blank data sheet and the filled scatterplot with its summary; downloads the grid as a spreadsheet (.csv); export and import a file. Keeps several scatterplots.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the New special education teacher kit ($39) and the Special Education toolkit ($99), and 2 more bundles. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Special Education space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. On the Set up tab, enter the student code and a definition two observers would agree on.
  2. Add the time blocks from the class schedule, or make equal blocks, and the school days.
  3. Print a blank data sheet for the classroom, or record straight into the grid: tap a box to add one, or type the count.
  4. Mark blocks the student was not observed so they stay out of the totals.
  5. Open Patterns to see where the behavior clusters, then print the plot for the team meeting.

Open the scatterplot

How the scatterplot works

What it is for, how the shading and the summary are worked out, and what it cannot tell you.

The grid

Touchette, MacDonald and Langer (1985) described the scatterplot as a grid of time intervals by days, with each box left open, slashed or filled to show no, low or high rates. Patterns across days point to the times, activities and people tied to a behavior. Here each box holds the count; it is slashed from 1 up to the filled level and filled at that level or above (3 unless you change it). Boxes marked not observed are left out of every total and percentage.

A clear definition is what makes the counts trustworthy: say what the behavior looks like, what counts as one occurrence, and what does not count.

The summary

The page totals each time block and each day, ranks the blocks, and gives for each one the number of days with any occurrence out of the days observed. It names the busiest block and the share of all occurrences in it and the top three, lists blocks with no occurrences across at least three observed days, and flags a weekday whose daily average runs at least a quarter above the average of all weekdays.

A scatterplot shows when a behavior happens, not why. It helps a team decide when to watch for antecedents and consequences. Use it as one part of a functional behavior assessment carried out by the student's team, never as the assessment.

Sources

  1. Touchette, P. E., MacDonald, R. F., and Langer, S. N. (1985). A scatter plot for identifying stimulus control of problem behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 18(4), 343–351.
  2. Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., and Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied Behavior Analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson. Operational definitions, event recording and descriptive assessment.
  3. Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. Functional behavioral assessment resources (pbis.org).
  4. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1415(k)(1)(D) and (F). Functional behavioral assessment and behavioral intervention plans in federal special education law.

The worked example is made up. Keep only a student code here; store the definition, data and any notes according to your school's records policy. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.