Rebecca Turner

Preference Assessment
EDU 348
November 25, 2018

Participant Background

The participant of this study was a 12-year-old boy named Joe. Joe lives in a typical home with

his biological parents. He attends a private academy where he has an aide (provided through the

state). Joe was diagnosed with Autism when he was three years old. Since that time, he has been

in Special Education classes (inclusive classrooms), Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, and

has had a full-time Aide.

Though he is verbal, he severely struggles with voicing his opinion and preference. He

has a very hard time making decisions which is why a preference assessment could help his par-

ents and caretakers know which items he responds well to. Joe has many favorite toys and activi-

ties, and this assessment will narrow down which ones will help to positively reinforce him.

This study was conducted in Joe’s home. I conducted this assessment on two different

days. Trials 1-3 were conducted in the morning while Trials 4-6 were conducted in the late after-

noon. The sessions were held at these times due to Joe’s availability. For the assessment, I used

several of his personal items in addition to several items that I brought to get a comprehensive

idea of what Joe tends to favor. There were five items in total: a toy car, a basketball, a deck of

playing cards, slime, and sour patch kids (candy). His mom chose several of the items and then

asked me to pick several as well. I think this was a good idea because it gave Joe a chance to ex-

perience some new objects and/or toys that he may have never seen before. His mom recom-

mended using goldfish as a reinforcer and that worked very well.

 Results

This preference assessment occurred over six different sessions with five trials in each

session. To start, I had Joe sit at the dining room table. I explained that we were going to be play-

ing with some fun toys today. After the brief explanation, I laid all the toys in front of him. I told

him to pick the one he wanted to play with most and after a pause, he chose the basketball. He

bounced the basketball while I recorded the results. When I asked for the ball back, he was

slightly reluctant but was willing to trade for a goldfish. The goldfish worked as a great rein-

forcer through all of the sessions.

The tables below show that the results were actually inconsistent. In the beginning, Joe

leaned towards the basketball, but after that first time, he chose slime 60% of the time which is

well above the percentages others. The next item he selected most frequently was the candy. The

candy was sour patch kids (his favorite) which he chose 43% of the time. Next, he choose the

playing cards 40% of the time. He is currently in a phase where he loves to perform magic tricks,

so practicing his tricks with the cards was very fun for him. Next to last was the basketball,

which he selected 19% of the time. Lastly, he chose his toy car only 1% of the time. Afterward,

his mom explained to me that he was very quickly losing interest in cars as he has been more fo-

cused on magic tricks. These percentages were calculated by dividing the number of times an

item was selected by the number of times an item was presented. For example, the slime was

presented 10 times and Joe selected the slime 6 times. 6 divided by 10 = .60 or 60%. 


The results found in this assessment can be used to provide positive reinforcement to Joe.

The top three were Slime, candy, and playing cards. His mom was excited to know that these

items, particularly the slime, could be used to reinforce Joe. The goal that Joe is working towards
at the moment is completing independent work. He is very social and has a hard time sitting qui-

etly. Offering slime for the completion of independent work may help him to increase this de-

sired behavior. Below are the tables that display the results of this preference assessment:

For reference:

Slime - 6/10 - 60%

Candy - 6/14 - 43%

Cards - 6/15 - 40%

Ball - 4/21 - 19%

Toy Car - 2/24 - 1%

Reflection

Throughout the trials, Joe was very compliant. This was really great because I was able to

perform the assessment without much interruption. I decided to split up the assessment into two

days because Joe has a fairly short attention span. I wanted to get authentic results and I believe

splitting up the assessment helped me to achieve that. Joe was a very good listener and he also

seemed comfortable because this assessment took place in his own home. There was only one

time that Joe grabbed the slime without waiting for a clue. But once I reminded him to wait, he

put the slime down and I rewarded him with a goldfish.

If I were to change something about this assessment, I would have chosen another object

than his toy car. I did not realize that he had very little interest in it until after the assessment was

entirely completed. Though this did help me to see consistency in the toys that he did not prefer.

I think there was a good variety of objects. This gave Joe a choice between a variety of different

objects rather than a choice in a variation of the same object (such as all toys).

This assessment helped me to see the importance of student choice. Students who are

given choices seem to be much more compliant than those who are forced to use one thing. Not

only did these results help me to gain experience, but it also helped his mom to choose new rein-

forcement objects for Joe. This experience was very educational and I am excited to use this

strategy in the future.