Kathleen Thompson

EDU 348

November 10, 2018

Preference Assessment

Participant Background

The participant of this preference assessment was a four year old boy who is enrolled in

preschool. John is a caucasian who lives in a single parent household with his mother. He attends

preschool regularly and when he is not at school, he is with his mom. His mom works in the

athletic department at Franciscan so he is always around and has gotten close to some of the

athletes. From being at almost every athletic event, John has come to love sports and is going to

start participating in a few this upcoming summer since he is now old enough. John is a typically

developing child with a fairly normal childhood.

I conducted John’s preference assessment in the waiting area in the fieldhouse outside of

his mother’s office. There was a small table with chairs that was perfect for his size. The

materials used in this preference assessment consisted of the following: a toy firetruck, a

football, a blue volleyball, a red volleyball, and a small wooden baseball bat. His mother selected

a variety of toys that he normally enjoys playing with and some that he does not play with as

often. Although two of the items were volleyballs, he enjoyed playing with both of them and one

color was definitely more preferred. If I had more options of toys, I would have used only one

volleyball but his mother only brought those five toys with them. John cooperated very well

during the assessment and enjoyed the Smarties I brought for reinforcement.

Results
 This preference assessment consisted of eight sessions with five trials in each session. I

began the first session by explaining to John that his mom told me what his favorite toys were

and that she brought me some so that we could play with them. Then I placed all five toys on the

table telling him what each was as I placed it down. During the first trial, I asked John which toy

he wanted to play with first and he chose the football. He was very nervous when I first started

the assessment and he got very shy. He kept looking at my paper that I was writing on and when

he saw me writing, he got really quiet and unwilling to play. So, I let him look at my paper and I

explained to him that I was just writing down which toys we play with. As soon as I explained

that to him, he immediately warmed up. He then proceeded to choose both volleyballs in the next

two trials. These choices made sense because he loves sports and his mother told me that those

three were his favorite. For the rest of the trials, the football and both volleyballs were more

often than not the first three objects chosen but not necessarily in any order. When John made a

choice, I recorded it on my sheet while he played with the toy and I even played with him for

about a minute before I asked for the toy back. John complied very well when I asked for the toy

back and told him it was time to pick a new one. I then rearranged the order of the remaining

toys on the table and let him pick the one he wanted to play with next. As we progressed through

more sessions, John started to lose interest so it was then that I decided to reinforce him with

Smarties at the conclusion of each session.

During the assessment, John was somewhat consistent in the type of toy that he chose

first. He tended to choose the three sports balls in the beginning of the sessions which include the

football and both colored volleyballs. Towards the last half of the assessment, I noticed that he

was choosing the red volleyball consistently first which makes sense because, as evidenced in

the charts, he chose the red volleyball 72% of the time. John chose the football 47% of the time
and the blue volleyball 38% of the time which also made sense because he is very into sports. In

particular, he loves to play football and soccer, which was how he played with the volleyballs, by

kicking and scoring goals. The fourth most liked toy, chosen 16% of the time, was the firetruck

which he likes to drive and crash a lot. John’s least favorite toy was the baseball bat chosen at

9% which makes sense because comparatively, it was not as exciting to play with as the other

toys. If he had something to hit with the bat, it probably would have been one of his favorite toys

to play with. These calculations were completed by dividing the number of times the object was

presented, by the number of times the object was chosen.

Session 1 Date:
11/10/2018

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Firetruck N N N N 5

Football Y - - - 1

Blue N Y - - 2
Volleyball

Red N N Y - 3
Volleyball

Bat N N N Y 4

Session 2 Date:
11/10/2018

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Firetruck N N N N 5

Football N N Y - 3

Blue N Y - - 2
Volleyball
Red Y - - - 1
Volleyball

Bat N N N Y 4

Session 3 Date:
11/10/2018

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Firetruck N N N N 5

Football N N Y - 3

Blue N Y - - 2
Volleyball

Red Y - - - 1
Volleyball

Bat N N N Y 4

Session 4 Date:
11/10/2018

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Firetruck N N N Y 4

Football N N Y - 3

Blue N Y - - 2
Volleyball

Red Y - - - 1
Volleyball

Bat N N N N 5

Session 5 Date:
11/10/2018
Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Firetruck N N Y - 3

Football N Y - - 2

Blue N N N Y 4
Volleyball

Red Y - - - 1
Volleyball

Bat N N N N 5

Session 6 Date:
11/10/2018

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Firetruck N N N Y 4

Football Y - - - 1

Blue N N Y - 3
Volleyball

Red N Y - - 2
Volleyball

Bat N N N N 5

Session 7 Date:
11/10/2018

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Firetruck N N N Y 4

Football N Y - - 2

Blue N N Y - 3
Volleyball

Red Y - - - 1
Volleyball
 Bat N N N N 5

Session 8 Date:
11/10/2018

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Firetruck N N N Y 4

Football N Y - - 2

Blue N N Y - 3
Volleyball

Red Y - - - 1
Volleyball

Bat N N N N 5

Hierarchy Item Chosen/Presented Percentage

#1 Red Volleyball 8/11 72%

#2 Football 8/17 47%

#3 Blue Volleyball 8/21 38%

#4 Firetruck 5/31 16%

#5 Bat 3/32 9%

These results can be used as reinforcers at home or in school. Although John is a

typically developing student, this hierarchy can still be used to reinforce desired behaviors. I feel

that they could be best used in the homes because these are the toys he is used to having at home.

If he needed reinforcers at school, I would redo the preference assessment with toys that are in

his classroom at school. As far at at-home use for the toys, more preferred items like the sports

balls can be used for reinforcement when he complies to things that he may not always comply
to like cleaning his room or listening to his mom. The lesser preferred items like the firetruck and

the baseball bat can be used as reinforcers when he does small things like brushing his teeth or

sharing with his friends. This is how the results of the assessment could be best used for John as

it applies to his life.

Reflection

I thought that for my first time conducting a preference assessment, it went very well. I

have known John for a year so he was very comfortable with me conducting the assessment. At

first, he was a little apprehensive because I was recording his choices and he was not sure what it

was. He got shy and did not want to play with anything but I just explained to him that I was just

writing down the toy he chose so that we could remember which ones we played with and as

soon as he saw that, he was very excited to play. Once he chose a toy, I allowed him to play with

the toy for a little bit and I even played with him. The reasoning for this was because when he

plays with those toys at home, his mom plays with him so in order to have an accurate test, I

played with him like his mom does so that he was really choosing his favorites. When I was

trying to get the toys back from John, he was very compliant and was excited to play with the

next one. I never had any major issues with getting a toy back but towards the fifth session, he

was starting to get tired and did not want to play as much so I started reinforcing him with

Smarties that I brought with me. I was able to get in eight sessions with him which gave me very

accurate data. Overall, I thought the assessment went very well.

If I could, I would change a few things about this assessment. The first thing I would

change would be to take out one of the volleyballs and replace it with a different toy. This would

give another option for John and may have even changed the data and hierarchy of the choices. I

would also change the length of time that I allowed him to play with the toys. He played with
them for a few minutes each and he played with some longer than the others. This could have

affected which toys he chose when and in the future, I would shorten the amount of play-time

and keep it consistent with each toy. Those would be the only two things that I would change

about the assessment because I feel that the rest of it went really well. Overall, this was a great

experience and I learned a lot through practicing this for when I have to complete one in the

classroom someday.