Free operant observations refers to noticing the activities the client engages in when there is free access to all items and activities. Consider the term free time:
What do you do when you get home from work and there is nothing that you must do?
Now consider a client having “downtime” in an environment where there are many preferred items and activities, such as the bedroom or living area of the house. Free operant observation records the amount of time a client engages in a particular activity, then compares it to the amount of time engaged in other activities.
The assumption of free operant observation method is that the more time a client spends on a particular activity indicates more preference for that activity. For example, if the client spent 40 minutes watching TV and 30 minutes reading, then watching TV would be considered more highly preferred than reading.