A-B-C or ABC recording is a way of collecting information to help determine the function of a child’s behavior. It does this by breaking down your observations into three elements:

• Antecedents (A): what happened directly before the behavior occurred.
• Behavior (B): the specific action(s) or behavior of interest.
• Consequences (C): what happened directly after the behavior occurred.

Thinking of behavior in these terms helps to understand why a child behaves in a particular manner. This allows more meaningful interventions than just trying to prevent the behavior.