Adelyons / Nello / ABC data sheet / FBA summary
FBA data collection: what an FBA-ready ABC summary contains
A functional behavior assessment starts from counts, and the counts are the part parents rarely get to hand over in a usable shape. Below is a live sample built from three weeks of example rows, using the same engine as the Nello app's ABC data report. Everything on this page is computed in your browser from the rows at the bottom.
1. Frequency
How many, over how many days, and the worst day. Per-day frequency is the number a team tracks before and after a change, so it comes first.
2. Duration
Two incidents a day that last two minutes and two that last forty minutes are different problems. Duration is recorded only where it was known; the summary says on how many rows.
3. Time of day and weekday
A heatmap of counts by weekday and part of the day. Bands fall on school-day edges (before school, school morning, midday, afternoon), so a cluster lands on something the team can name: "Monday mornings before school" rather than "sometimes in the morning".
4. Intensity
A 1–5 scale the family defines once and keeps. The distribution matters more than the average: a shift from mostly 2s to mostly 4s at the same frequency is a change.
5. Antecedents, consequences, settings
Ranked by count, grouped case-insensitively so "transition to the car" and "Transition to the car" are one row. The share of antecedents that mention a transition, change or wait is called out because it is the most common pattern families find.
6. The incident log
The rows behind the tables, oldest first, so anyone can check a number. In the app this is the second page of the PDF and the whole of the CSV.
| Date | Time | Setting | A | B | C | Int. | Min |
|---|
The same summary as plain text
What "Copy summary text" produces on the online log, and the body of the app's PDF.
What the summary deliberately leaves out
- Function. It never says "escape" or "attention". That reading is the professional's, from the whole picture; the summary gives them the counts.
- Labels. No "tantrum", "defiant", "aggressive". Rows describe what was seen; the tables count what was described.
- Therapy framing. ABC recording is used across many approaches. The summary belongs to the family and works with whichever team they have.
Frequently asked questions
What is FBA data collection?
A functional behavior assessment is how a school team or behavior analyst works out what a behavior is doing for a child. It starts from data: how often, how long, when, where, what comes before and what follows. ABC recording is the usual way parents and teachers contribute that data.
What does the team actually want from parents?
Counts rather than stories: incidents per day over a few weeks, typical and longest duration, the time-of-day pattern, the settings, and ranked antecedents and consequences. One page with those tables is read in a minute.
Does the summary say what the function of the behavior is?
No, and it should not. Deciding function is the professional's judgment. The summary gives them what they need to make it.
Get this report from your own record
In the Nello app, Export & reports → ABC data report builds exactly these sections for any window (two weeks, 30 days, 90 days, everything) as a PDF plus a CSV, from home entries and from a teacher's school-day log alike. The ABC data report is part of Nello+; the CSV export of every ABC entry is free.