ABA

Data collection

Run an ABA data session on a visit, focus it on a few programs, record interobserver agreement as a second observer, score trials, steps, counts, timers, intervals, latencies, ratings, scores, products and ABC records, run cold probes, follow a live graph and short-term goal progress, take over a paused session, correct entries and end with or without data.

A data session collects a learner's data during one visit. Open the learner's chart, choose Clinical > Visits and open the Data sessions tab. Each provider runs one session per visit, and every value the session records later appears on the graphs and feeds the mastery queue.

Start a session#

Click Start Session.
Pick the visit. The list shows the learner's open ABA visits from the last two weeks. A visit you already have a session on opens that session again instead of starting a second one.
To focus the session, turn on Focus on some programs and pick them. Focused programs are listed first with a Focus badge.
To record who ran or joined the session and the materials used, turn on Tag people and materials and list them, separated by commas (for example Mother, Peer and Real objects).
Click Start Session. The session clock starts and the collector opens.

When the session starts, NeatPractice copies the learner's signed treatment plan and active programs into it. Changes to the plan or the programs during the session do not change what this session collects.

Set the focus ahead#

The Upcoming focus list under the sessions shows the learner's ABA appointments for the next four weeks. To choose what one should focus on, click Set Focus in its row menu and pick the programs; leave the list empty to clear it. A session started on that appointment's visit, in the app or offline, takes this focus unless you pick other programs when you start it. The start dialog fills it in when you choose the visit.

The session bar#

The bar at the top shows the session time, which leaves out pauses. Use it to:

Pause and Resume the session. Data can be recorded only while the session runs.
End Session when you are done.
Take Over a paused session another provider started. Only one person records at a time; the handoff is kept in the session's record.

Running duration timers also appear in the bar, so you can stop one while you score something else.

The session's people and materials show as badges in the bar. Click People and Materials to change them until the session's note is signed. Mastery rules limited to a person or material read these tags.

Use Assent Withdrawn when the learner stops assenting, and Assent Regained when they assent again. The bar shows the session's assent, and each change is kept in the session's record with its time.

When targets in maintenance are not due this session under their program's maintenance schedule, Show Not Due reveals them; they can still be scored.

A focused session also offers Show Focus Only to hide the other programs. Ten minutes before the visit's scheduled end, a reminder lists the focused targets that have no data yet, so you can work them before the session ends.

Record data#

Behaviors and skill programs sit side by side: behaviors in the Behaviors column, skill programs in the Programs column (one above the other on narrow screens), so you can tally a behavior without scrolling away from a trial. Each program shows its targets with one-tap controls for its measure:

Measure	How you record
Discrete trial	Pick a prompt level if one was used, then click Correct or Incorrect for each trial.
Percent independent	The same as discrete trial; only correct responses at an independent level count as independent.
Task analysis	Mark each step Independent or Prompted. Click New Pass to run the chain again.
Frequency and rate	Click +1 for each occurrence. The rate per hour shows once a minute has passed.
Duration	Click Start and Stop for each episode. Several timers can run at once.
Interval	Click Start Intervals, then mark each interval Occurred or Did Not Occur. A tone and vibration mark each new interval.
ABC	Click Record ABC and enter the antecedent, behavior, consequence, setting and possible functions.
Latency	Click Cue when you give the instruction and Response when the learner responds. The session value is the mean time to respond.
Inter-response time	Click Response each time the learner responds. The session value is the mean time between responses.
Rating or intensity	Click the level that fits each episode. Key shows what each level looks like. The session value is the mean rating.
Score	Click Enter Score and type the score, such as a worksheet result. Several scores in one session average.
Permanent product	Click Add Products and type how many were completed, counted after the fact. They add up for the session.

The prompt level you pick stays selected for the next trials, and the last three levels you used appear under the buttons. Behavior programs also offer Record ABC.

When a program sets a minimum or maximum number of trials, a Min badge beside the trial count turns green once the target reaches it, and the trial buttons stop at the maximum.

Above the controls, each item shows its Baseline (the average of its baseline data, or the baseline note on the target), this Session and This week, Monday to Sunday with this session included. Counts and durations add up over the week; percentages average per session. Details opens the program's clinical details without leaving the session: topography, functions and interventions for a behavior; definition, procedure, teaching procedures and barrier for a skill.

Live graph and short-term goal#

Each item has an arrow beside its name that expands or collapses the row; rows start expanded. An expanded row shows:

Current STO: the short-term goal the program works toward in the signed plan, with the date it became current (when the previous goal was met, or the plan's start).
Toward STO: how close the item is to meeting that goal's criterion, as a percent. A goal of 80% for 3 consecutive sessions is at 67% after two sessions in a row at 80% or more. Data outside a phase (on hold) does not count, and a goal without a criterion shows No criterion.
STOs met: how many of the long-term goal's short-term goals are met, such as 1 / 3.
A small graph of recent data. Choose Daily or Weekly points; weeks run Monday to Sunday. Counts and durations add up per day or week; percentages average per session. A dashed line marks a phase change, and Enlarge opens the graph full screen.

The graph and the progress update as you record: this session's value joins today's point at once, before anything syncs. For a frequency program whose goal counts per hour, the graph and progress use the rate instead of the count.

Click Hide Graphs in the session bar to collect without graphs; the goal and its progress stay. Your choice is saved for your account, and Show Graphs brings them back.

Run a probe#

A probe checks a target cold, before any teaching, and only the first response counts. Discrete trial, percent independent and task analysis targets can run as a probe:

Click Run as Probe on the target before recording anything for it. A Probe badge appears.
Score the first trial, or the first pass of a chain. The trial buttons stop after one trial.

Click Probe On to turn it off before you record. Probe values graph as their own series, named after the target with "(probe)", and never move a target to its next step unless the program counts probes toward mastery.

Run a task analysis several times#

You can run a task analysis chain more than once in a session. Each run is a pass: score the steps of Pass 1, then click New Pass to start Pass 2 with every step unscored. New Pass turns on once the current pass has a score. Click a pass to go back and fix a step in it; scoring a step again replaces its earlier score in that pass only.

Each pass gets its own percent of independent steps. The session value combines them by the program's Session value setting: the mean of the passes (the default), the first pass or the best pass. The line under the steps shows the pass you are on and the session value, and the session summary, note data and graph history list every pass.

Observed items#

Only observed items get a value for the session. An item you record anything for is observed. Use Mark Observed for an item you watched but that had nothing to record, such as a behavior that did not happen; it records zero. Trials, steps and intervals with no entries are missing data, never zero percent.

An admin can make every item start as observed under ABA settings, Data collection.

Correct an entry#

Click History on an item to see its entries. Retract removes a mistaken entry from the values; it stays in the history struck through. After the session's note is signed, a correction needs a reason and the permission to correct data. A supervisor can also let you correct recent sessions for a while with a data-correction grant.

End the session#

Click End Session. If nothing was recorded, enter why; the reason shows to audits. If an observed target has fewer trials than its program's minimum, NeatPractice lists those targets and asks before ending. When the session ends, the summary lists one value per observed item, with probes marked, and NeatPractice checks each target's mastery rules.

The session bar then shows the session's learning opportunities: every scored trial, step, interval, latency, rating and score, and every counted response, on skill programs, with how many that is per hour of session time. Behavior reduction programs, durations and ABC records are not counted. The session list shows the same count in its Opportunities column.

Observe a session live#

Supervisors can watch a session while it runs. Open Documentation > Live sessions for the sessions collecting data now for the learners you can see; the list refreshes on its own, and the Providers tab narrows it to some providers. Click a session's start time, or choose Observe in its menu, to see each program and target worked so far with its trials. The feed updates as soon as the technician records data. Watching is read only: nothing you do in the feed changes the session.

To adjust a target, choose Open Program in its row menu: the learner's program opens on their treatment programs. Open programs goes to the full list.

Every time you open the feed, NeatPractice records that you observed the session. The Observed by section lists who watched and when, and the Watching column of the list shows who is watching each session now.

Collect for a group#

To collect data for several learners at once, such as in a social skills group, open Documentation, Group collection and click Start Group. Pick up to six learners from your open ABA visits of the last 12 hours and the next 4, then click Start Group.

Each learner gets their own data session (or keeps the one you already started on that visit), shown side by side with its own color. Record, pause and end each learner's session as usual; their notes, graphs and mastery stay separate. Click Change Learners to pick others, or Close Group to leave the view; the sessions keep running until you end them.

Run a functional analysis condition#

While the learner has a functional analysis that is not completed, a running session shows a Functional analysis card. To run a condition from the session:

Click Run Condition, pick the analysis and the condition, and click Start. The condition's timer starts.
Count the behavior with the plus and minus buttons, or, for an analysis measured in percent of intervals, click Occurred or Did Not Occur at the end of each interval.
Click Stop and Save. The condition session is added to the analysis with the session's date and the minutes it ran (at least one), and it appears on the multielement graph. Discard drops it.

A condition in progress survives reloading the page in the same browser tab: the timer keeps counting from when it started and the counts stay. Closing the tab drops it.

You need permission to collect data, not to author the analysis. Only an open analysis takes new sessions.

Interobserver agreement#

Interobserver agreement (IOA) checks that two people record the same session the same way. While another provider runs a session, a second provider records it too:

Open the learner's Data sessions list.
On the other provider's session, click Observe for IOA. Your own session opens on the same visit with the same programs and targets, marked Second observer for IOA.
Record what you see on your own, then click End Session.

Your record never reaches graphs, notes or the mastery queue. Once both sessions have ended, each of them shows an Interobserver agreement table: every item both of you observed, both values, and the agreement by each method its measure takes:

Measure	Methods
Frequency, ABC and inter-response time	Total count (the smaller count over the larger), Mean count-per-interval and Exact count-per-interval, by blocks of the clinic's IOA count block (one minute by default) from each observer's start
Interval	Interval-by-interval: intervals both scored the same way, over intervals both scored
Discrete trial, percent independent, rating and score	Trial-by-trial, in order; a trial only one observer scored counts as a disagreement
Task analysis	Trial-by-trial, step by step within each pass
Duration and latency	Total duration: the smaller total over the larger
Permanent product	Total count

The first method is the item's agreement, and the session's agreement is the mean of its items, shown against the clinic's goal. The session list marks observed sessions with IOA and the observer's record with Second observer, and its header shows the learner's IOA coverage for the last 90 days (observed sessions over ended sessions) and mean agreement, each against the clinic's goals in ABA settings.

Print a service log#

Click Service Log above the session list to print the learner's sessions for a range of dates of service: each session's date, start and end, provider, codes, units, minutes, place of service, whether the caregiver signed and whether its note is signed, with totals. Choose Every provider or one care team role (Case lead, Assistant analyst or Technician) to print that role's log; a session counts for a role when its provider held that role on the learner's care team on the day. Printing needs the Visits: Read permission.

Void a session#

A session recorded in error can be voided from the session list with a reason. Its values leave the graphs and mastery; the entries stay in the record.