ABA Assessments
What is an ABA Assessment
ABA has its own set of assessments that evaluate skills and behaviors that are in each client’s repertoire. Completing these normed assessments allows the Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) to effectively determine what skills and deficits the client has and establish goals to enhance these skills and increase socially significant skills. These assessments also guide the BCBA to make medically necessary recommendations for the number of hours of ABA Therapy needed to be most effective.
Assessments used at Gemstones ABA Center
The VB MAPP Milestones Assessment (Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program) is an assessment, skills-tracking system, and curriculum guide to assess language, learning, and social skills of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders or other developmental disabilities. Unlike other similar tools, the VB MAPP looks at skills according to skill type and expected skills by age. It is divided into 3 Levels. The first level corresponds to skills expected of typically developing 0-18-month-old children. Level 2 corresponds to skills expected of typically developing 18-30-month-olds, and Level 3, skills expected with typically developing 30-48-month-old children. Each Level is broken divided into skill areas that are relevant for children from that age group. The goal of intervention is to create a general balance of skills across the Level for which most of the child’s skills are clustered around, as many of the skills assessed in the VB MAPP are considered prerequisites for skills in higher levels. The VB MAPP Milestones Scoring Grid was filled in (below) based on skills reported as mastered during the initial assessment.
The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills-Revised (ABLLS-R) contains 25 skill areas (e.g., language, social interaction, self-help) that many children acquire before entering kindergarten. “The focus of the ABLLS-R is early language acquisition, verbal behavior, and very early learning concepts and readiness skills. (ABLLS-R, 2006). The ABLLS-R can be used to guide caregivers and professionals “seeking to teach language and critical learner skills to individuals with autism”
Socially Savvy Assessment. The Socially Savvy Checklist evaluates social skills. It provides a picture of a child’s social skills in a variety of areas, specifically Joint Attending, Social Play, Self-Regulation, Social/Emotional, Social Language, Classroom/Group Behavior, and Nonverbal Social Language. Specific skills are identified within each of the seven areas for a total of 127 separate social skills. Within each section, skills generally move from simpler to more complex and are in the order in which a typically developing child would master them. In each section, the lower-numbered skills are simpler or may be prerequisites for later skills.
Social Rating Scale-2. Identifies the presence and severity of social impairment within the autism spectrum and differentiates it from that which occurs in other disorders