Which is the best example of latency recording?

• A. A teacher documents whether a student's behavior occurs or does not occur during specific time periods.
• B. A teacher observes the amount of time that lapses between when a direction is given and when a student begins to perform a specific behavior.
• C. A teacher observes and documents via tally marks on a chart each time a student engages in a target behavior.
• D. A teacher documents each time that a student engages in a target behavior, recording the event that preceded the behavior and the event that immediately followed the behavior.

Answer: (B)

Latency recording measures the time from a defined starting point, such as a directive or cue, to the initiation of the target behavior. The option that describes observing the amount of time between when a direction is given and when the student begins to perform a specific behavior fits this concept exactly, because it quantifies how long it takes for the student to start after the instruction. This helps assess prompt levels, prompt fading, and how quickly a student responds to cues. In contrast, counting every occurrence of the behavior measures frequency, tallying occurrences within time intervals tracks whether the behavior happens during those periods, and recording what happens before and after describes ABC or descriptive event recording—none of these focus on the start-to-response timing that latency captures.