If you want to know how long you waited after instructions before a child begins a task, which measurement are you using?

• A. Duration
• B. Inter-response time
• C. Event recording
• D. Latency

Answer: (D)

Latency measures the interval from when you give an instruction to when the child actually begins the task. This directly captures how long you wait after the cue before the behavior starts, which is exactly what you’re assessing here. To record it, note the time the instruction is delivered and the time the child starts the task, then subtract to get the latency in seconds. For example, if the instruction is given at 0 seconds and the child begins at 5 seconds, latency is 5 seconds.

This differs from duration, which tracks how long the behavior lasts once it starts; inter-response time, which is the time between two successive responses; and event recording, which counts how many times a behavior occurs.