Session notes are one of the least glamorous parts of ABA practice and one of the most clinically important. The data you collect during a session tells you what happened. The session notes tell you what it meant, what was unusual, what the therapist observed that the data alone cannot capture, and what the supervising clinician needs to know to make good clinical decisions.
Many new ABA therapists write session notes that are vague, incomplete, or so formulaic that they convey almost no useful clinical information. This is a skill that takes deliberate practice to develop. This guide covers the specific things that make session notes genuinely useful.
What Session Notes Are For
Session notes serve several purposes simultaneously. They provide a clinical record of what happened during the session that supports good supervision. They document any unusual events, behaviour changes, or observations that the data alone does not capture. They provide legal and ethical documentation of the services delivered. And they communicate to the wider clinical team, including any future therapist who works with the same client, what has been observed and tried.
Notes that say session went well, client was cooperative, all targets addressed are not clinical records. They are placeholders. They convey nothing that would help a supervising clinician make a better decision or a future therapist understand the client.
What Good Session Notes Contain
A brief description of the client’s state at the start of the session. Not just present and cooperative, but something specific. Client appeared tired and took approximately ten minutes to engage. Client arrived from school dysregulated and required a fifteen-minute preferred activity period before any structured teaching was possible. Client was alert and engaged from the beginning of the session, which was unusual given the level of dysregulation noted in yesterday’s notes. These brief opening observations are often the most clinically useful part of the note.
A summary of what was covered. Which targets were addressed, in what order, and for how long. This does not need to be an exhaustive list but should give a clear picture of the session’s structure.
Specific observations about individual targets. If a target that was progressing consistently showed an unexpected decline in today’s session, note it and note any possible explanation. If a new behaviour appeared during a specific target that was not present in previous sessions, note it. If a particular prompt level was more or less effective than usual, note it. These specific observations are what allow the supervising clinician to make informed decisions about the programme.
Anything unusual. A seizure, a fall, an expression of distress, a parent disclosing a difficult event at home, a change in the client’s physical presentation. Anything that deviated from the typical session should be documented specifically.
Questions for supervision. If something happened during the session that you were unsure how to handle, or if you observed something that raises a clinical question, note it explicitly. This is what supervision conversations should be built from.
What Good Session Notes Do Not Contain
Vague language that could describe any session. Good progress today. Client was challenging but responded to redirection. These phrases convey nothing.
Interpretive language without behavioural description. Client seemed frustrated. Client appeared to be avoiding the task. These interpretations may be accurate but they need to be grounded in specific behavioural description. What did the client do that suggested frustration? What specific behaviours indicated task avoidance?
Jargon that is not explained or contextualised. A note that references ABC analysis, VR3 schedule, and DRO procedure without any description of what was observed and what happened is not useful to anyone who was not already familiar with the specific programme design.
Personal commentary about the client or family that is not clinically relevant. Session notes are part of a legal clinical record. Everything in them should be something you would be comfortable with the family reading.
The Difference Between Data and Notes
Session data and session notes are different documents serving different purposes. Data tells you what happened numerically: how many trials were completed, how many were correct, what the prompt level was for each. Notes tell you the qualitative clinical story of the session that the data cannot capture alone.
Both are necessary. Neither replaces the other.
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