Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales

The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS), published by American Guidance Service (http://ags.pearsonassessments.com), assess the personal and social sufficiency of individuals from birth to 90 years of age. They are used for diagnostic evaluations, program planning, and research investigations. The second edition of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS-II) is currently in press and will be available by early 2006. The VABS are commonly used in conjunction with assessments of intellectual functioning to differentiate between individuals' intellectual ability and their everyday functioning. Intellectual ability scores that are within the intellectually handicapped range may not accurately describe individuals' abilities to fend for themselves in daily life. Therefore, an assessment of adaptive functioning is necessary to measure everyday living skills and design appropriate supportive interventions.

There are four versions of the VABS-II, all administered to a person who is familiar with the behavior of the individual of interest. The Survey Interview is a semistructured interview (requiring up to 60 minutes for administration) that provides a general assessment of adaptive functioning. The Expanded Interview (which takes up to 90 minutes to administer) offers a more comprehensive assessment and a systematic basis for preparing individual educational, habilitative, or treatment programs. The Parent/Caregiver Rating Form covers the same content as the Survey Interview but uses a rating scale format and works well when time or access is limited. The Teacher Rating Form is independently completed by a classroom teacher, provides an assessment of behavior in the classroom, takes up to 20 minutes to complete, and applies to people from the age of 3 years to 22 years. Scoring can be done manually or by computer program and provides a profile of strengths and weaknesses across the domains measured.

Behaviors measured are divided into five domains: communication, daily living skills, socialization, motor skills, and maladaptive behaviors. The motor skills domain applies only to children under the age of 5 years, and the maladaptive behaviors domain applies only to children over the age of 5 years. The first four domains each have subdomains, and each subdomain has categories. For example, the daily living skills domain has a personal subdomain, which includes the categories of eating and drinking, toileting, dressing, bathing, grooming, and health care. Items are short sentences describing behaviors (for example, “Opens mouth when spoon with food is presented” or “Makes own bed when asked”), and the interviewer seeks behaviors that are regularly performed, not those that could be performed.

In the VABS-II, updating of content reflects tasks and daily living skills that are more attuned to current societal expectations than are those of the 1984 edition. Current norms match the latest census data in the United States, and current items encompass a wider range of functioning and a wider age range than did those of the first edition.

There are considerable data to support the reliability, validity, and cross-cultural stability of the VABS. They are the most highly rated scales of adaptive functioning in the United States and have been endorsed as a measure of adaptive behavior by the World Health Organization. A particular strength of the instrument is that, due to the interview structure, valuable qualitative information may be gleaned from the open-ended questions that are used to elicit specific information.

...