ABC Recording

Instead of tallying or timing, you document each behavioral event as a three-part sequence: what happened before (A), the behavior itself (B), and what happened after (C). Over multiple sessions, these patterns help you develop a hypothesis about why a student displays the behavior.

ABC data alone don’t establish causation — they reveal correlational patterns in the natural environment. For maximum defensibility, pair ABC with quantitative baseline data from frequency or interval methods.

Recording an ABC event

Starting a new event

Press N to begin entering a new ABC event. A three-column entry form appears:

Antecedent → Behavior → Consequence

The form defaults to the antecedent column. The timer continues running — recording doesn’t pause.

Entering antecedents

The antecedent column shows your pre-loaded tag set (e.g., “Direct instruction,” “Peer interaction,” “Transition,” “Demand,” etc.). Use keyboard shortcuts to toggle tags:

• 1–9 — toggle tags corresponding to your loaded set
• Tab — move to the behavior column
• Type freely — add custom antecedent details not covered by the tag set

You can select multiple tags for one event. Example: “Direct instruction (1) + Transition (3)” if the event occurred during both.

Selecting the behavior

Press Tab to move to the behavior column. The column shows your defined target behaviors.

• 1–9 — select a behavior by number (each observation can record only one behavior per event; if you have co-occurring topographies, define them as separate events — see Observation Methods for guidance)
• Type freely — add custom behavioral details (example: “verbal refusal + eye roll”)

One behavior per event is enforced at the data model level, ensuring that functional analysis can distinguish between behaviors and their individual consequences.

Entering consequences

Press Tab again to move to the consequence column. The column shows your consequence tags, often organized by function (obtain, escape, automatic).

• 1–9 — toggle consequence tags
• Type freely — add custom consequence details

You can select multiple consequences if the student’s behavior produced multiple outcomes (example: teacher redirection AND peer attention).

Committing the entry

Press Enter from the consequence column, or Cmd+Enter from any field. The entry commits, the form clears, and you can start the next event.

If you press Enter while in the antecedent or behavior column, the cursor advances to the next column instead of committing.

Duplicating an event’s context

If two events share the same antecedent and consequence (same trigger, same outcome, different behavior), press Shift+N to duplicate the last committed event’s antecedent and consequence context. The behavior field opens blank, so you can quickly select the new behavior and commit.

Example: if you recorded “demand → screaming → teacher attention,” and then immediately the student also hit you during the same demand, press Shift+N, select “hitting” from the behavior column, and commit. This preserves the fact that both behaviors occurred under identical context, which is useful for function analysis.

Keyboard shortcuts for ABC entry

Action	Shortcut
Start a new event	N
Duplicate last event context (same A+C, fresh B)	Shift+N
Move forward through columns	Tab
Move backward through columns	Shift+Tab
Toggle tag in antecedent or consequence column	1–9
Select behavior in behavior column	1–9
Advance to next column	Enter
Commit event from any column	Cmd+Enter
Show behavior definitions	?

Activity context during ABC recording

Every ABC event is automatically tagged with the current Activity Context. Six options are available:

Activity	Shortcut
Large group instruction	Shift+1
Small group work	Shift+2
Independent work	Shift+3
Unstructured time	Shift+4
Transition	Shift+5
Other (custom label)	Shift+6

Click the activity pill or press the shortcut to switch contexts. If you select “Other,” a popover appears where you can type a custom label (example: “Recess,” “Specials,” “Library”). Sightline remembers every custom label you’ve used for this student, so you can reuse them from a list if they recur.

Important: Each distinct “Other” label creates a separate activity segment in your data. If you record three events under “Recess,” switch to “Art class” for two events, then back to “Recess” for one more, you’ll have three separate Recess segments, not one merged segment. This preserves the actual timeline of your observation.

Activity context flows into your results and writeup, so you can analyze whether behavior patterns are stable across settings or activity types.

Reviewing your entries

ABC entries appear chronologically in a timeline below the entry form. Each entry shows:

• Elapsed time of the event
• Antecedent tags (and custom text, if any)
• Behavior name
• Consequence tags (and custom text, if any)
• Activity context (if activity tracking is enabled)

Click any entry to edit it. Its data loads into the form, and pressing Cmd+Enter saves the changes. Press Escape to discard the edit.

After recording

When you end the session, sight·line calculates:

• Event frequency — total count of each behavior
• Antecedent patterns — what triggered each behavior (percentage of instances preceded by each antecedent tag)
• Consequence patterns — what followed each behavior (percentage of instances followed by each consequence tag)
• Function hypothesis — synthesized patterns suggesting the behavior may serve escape, attention, tangible, or automatic functions

Results are displayed as:

• Sankey flows — antecedent → behavior → consequence relationships visualized as streams
• Timeline view — chronological entry list with all details visible

ABC results pair well with Frequency or Interval data collected during the same assessment period. Quantitative data shows how much behavior occurs; ABC data shows why, providing the complete picture needed for hypothesis-driven intervention.

Tips for effective ABC recording

1. Define your target before you start — vague behavior definitions lead to inconsistent data. Spend setup time on clear operational definitions.
2. Use tags for speed — tag sets exist to keep you typing minimal during live observation. Tag freely during recording, then add custom notes in analysis if needed.
3. Record all instances, not just the “clearest” ones — skipping ambiguous events introduces bias and weakens your function hypothesis.
4. Separate co-occurring behaviors — if two topographies happen together (verbal + physical aggression), record two events under identical antecedent/consequence context using Shift+N. This preserves the analysis granularity you set up for.
5. Pair with other methods — ABC alone can miss critical baseline information. Use frequency or interval data first, then ABC to deepen analysis of sessions with elevated rates.

See Observation Methods for detailed clinical guidance on interpreting ABC patterns and generating defensible function hypotheses.