Sundberg Assessment PDF

# The importance of assessment * Assessment (analysis) drives the intervention * An initial assessment provides a baseline (operant skill level) * On-going assessment provides tracking and outcome data * On-going assessment can guide program adjustments * The failure to conduct an adequat...

# The importance of assessment * Assessment (analysis) drives the intervention * An initial assessment provides a baseline (operant skill level) * On-going assessment provides tracking and outcome data * On-going assessment can guide program adjustments * The failure to conduct an adequate assessment can result in an inappropriate and ineffective curriculum for a child, as well as a waste of valuable teaching time and resources # What should be assessed for children with autism? * It is essential to identify a child's existing verbal, nonverbal, and social skills (e.g., mands, echoics, listener skills, peer initiation) * It is also essential to identify the language, social, behavioral, and learning barriers that are preventing or slowing down skill acquisition * Most common language assessment tools for children with autism fail to provide this necessary information (Esch, LaLonde, & Esch, 2010) * For example, 28 out of 30 assessments fail to assess a child's mand repertoire (Esch et al, 2010), and none provide an assessment of possible barriers # A behavioral approach to assessment for children with autism * Basic behavioral concepts and principles allow professionals to identify and quantify learning, as well as barriers (e.g., motivation, reinforcement, stimulus control, generalization) * A behavioral analysis of typical human development provides a frame of reference for an assessment (e.g., Bijou & Baer, 1965; Novak & Pelaez, 2003; Schlinger, 1996; Skinner, 1957) * Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior provides a behavioral framework of language and social behavior that can be used to guide an assessment and intervention program (Sundberg & Michael, 2001) # The value of Skinner's analysis of language * Expands and clearly delineates the traditional categories of expressive (speaker) and receptive (listener) language * "Expressive language" is expanded across the verbal operants * echoic (motor imitation, copying-a-text) * mand * tact * intraverbal * textual * transcriptive * "Receptive language" is expanded to four distinct repertoires * listener discriminations (receptive language) * audience participation * mediator of reinforcement * emotional responder # Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement program: The VB-MAPP There are five components of the VB-MAPP: * **VB-MAPP: Milestones Assessment** measures 16 domains with 170 language, learning, and social milestones, across 3 developmental levels (0-18 months, 18-30 months, 30-48 months) * **VB MAPP: Barriers Assessment** examines 24 common learning and language barriers often faced by children with autism. * **VB MAPP: Transition Assessment** is a summary assessment of 18 domains and can serve as a guide for planning a child's educational needs * **VB-MAPP: Supporting Skills and Task Analysis** provides a checklist of hundreds of additional skills that may not warrant milestone status, but support the development of each of the domains (e.g., mands for attention, tacts of auditory stimuli). In addition, this section contains a task analysis of the 170 milestones, which is valuable for those progressing at a slower rate. * **VB-MAPP: Placement and IEP Goals** provides recommendations for program development based on the child's VB-MAPP profile, and his specific scores on the 170 milestones and the 24 Barriers. Also contains a bank of over 200 IEP objectives directly linked to the milestones and barriers assessments. # The VB-MAPP Milestones: How to score the assessment 16 domains are presented in three developmental levels: * The elementary verbal operants (echoic, mand, tact, intraverbal, etc.) * The listener skills * Vocal output * Independent play * Social skills and social play * Visual perceptual skills and matching-to-sample * Grammatical and syntactical skills * Group and classroom skills * Beginning academic skills