The definition also views adaptive behavior as a multidimensional construct, in that the definition is expanded to include two or more factor scores below two or more standard deviations. The Scales of Independent Behavior (SIB-RBruininks et al., 1984) is a component of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery. The VABS-3 assesses three domains of adaptive behaviors: communication, daily living, and socialization, with an additional optional motor skills assessment. Reliability is good. Average reliability coefficients of the adaptive skill areas across age groups range from .86 to .97, with the majority above .90 and corrected reliability coefficients of individuals with clinical diagnoses above .98. SSA guidelines further clarify the intent and nature of activities of daily living and social functioning for adults, and personal functioning for younger and older children, closely paraphrased below: The overall correspondence of several adaptive behavior measures to the content within the functional areas that are considered in ascertaining marked limitations is shown in Table 4-2. Auty and colleagues (1987) have found positive correlations between subtest scores on the TICE and supervisor-rated work skills, self-reported job satisfaction, and worker productivity among adults with mild mental retardation. The committee discussed the use of specific numeric cutoff points at which a marked deficit is present. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), published by the American Psychiatric Association (1994), definition of mental retardation also has a cutoff of two standard deviations below the mean for intelligence, making an IQ cutoff of 70 to 75 acceptable for a diagnosis of mental retardation. A consequence of this, according to Thompson et al., is the inability to develop precise measures of adaptive behavior that would objectively differentiate individuals by disability. By the close of the 19th century, medical practitioners diagnosing mental retardation relied on subjective or unsystematic summaries of such factors as age, general coordination, number of years behind in school, and physiognomy (Scheerenberger, 1983). Scales developed subsequently improved on the simple rating format found in the ABS, which contained a finite list of problem behaviors rated according to the frequency of occurrence. Also, current measures also evidence strong validity, as described in the chapter. The result is an overidentification of skill limitations among minority children. The Vineland-3 is a standardized measure of adaptive behavior-the things that people do to function in their everyday lives. It is crucial that people conducting or interpreting adaptive assessments take these problems into account. SOURCE: Greenspan and Driscoll (1997). When trained professionals use an interview format, the phrasing of items contained in the record booklet is not used. The Batelle Developmental Inventory (BDINewborg et al., 1984) is a developmental scale, rather than an adaptive behavior scale, and is appropriate for children from birth to age 8 (Spector, 1999). Both structured and semistructured interviews, when performed by well-trained and experienced clinicians, appear to be the best available safeguard against threats to the reliability and the validity of adaptive behavior assessment. ABS-RC:2 norms are not available for adults with typical functioning, and most norm-referenced scores provide comparisons only with adults with developmental disabilities. AAMR no longer differentiates, either qualitatively or quantitatively, differences in intellectual or adaptive functioning of individuals with mild, moderate, severe, and profound mental retardation. Their model divides social competence into two overall dimensions: (1) adaptive behavior, which includes the factors contained on most adaptive behavior scales (independent functioning, self-direction, personal responsibility, vocational activity, functional academic skills, physical development) and (2) social skills, including domains that are likely to be most key to identifying mental retardation at the borderline levels (interpersonal behaviors, self-related behaviors, academic-related skills, assertion, peer acceptance, communication skills). Current measures evidence acceptable interrater and test-retest reliability, with consistency scores at levels of .90 and above (seldom at a level below .80) for clinical and normative subgroups, partitioned by age and clinical variables. Another instrument permits adult client self-report (Harrison & Oakland, 2000a), a promising method that needs further study of its feasibility with clients having IQ scores in the range of 60 to 75 (Millham et al., 1978). Adaptive behavior has been fundamental to conceptions of mental retardation at least since the early 19th century (Doll, 1936a, 1967). Data from reliability and validity studies of the survey form are very impressive, especially in light of the flexible conversational procedures used for obtaining information. There is some confusion in the field of developmental disabilities regarding the relationship between problem behavior and adaptive behavior. They open a window into a child's inner world and often serve as a starting point for therapy. The term concurrently suggests an interdependent relationship in which both constructs are equally important. In the committee's view, the use of standardized measures of adaptive behavior is potentially valuable in the overall assessment of adaptive behavior. Nonetheless, culturally competent assessment practices require consideration of the developmental impacts of cultural practices or language differences among examiners, examinees, and informants that may affect the validity of the clinical information collected and interpreted. The ABAS-3 combines all-new norms with updated item content to create the leading adaptive skills assessment. If there is actually one underlying domain that causes behaviors in all different conceptual domains, and there is relatively little unique variance found in each domain, then a total score with a single cutoff point could reliably distinguish those with and without significant limitations. As with the current Vineland, the content and scales of . They also found that it was not the selection of the instrument that determined the number of factors. The technique of asking open-ended questions that tap the process of generating strategies for solving problems is widely used in standard assessments of intellectual functioning, such as the Wechsler scales. The value of such instruments will depend on careful decisions about instrument choice, score interpretation, and consideration of other information that bears on adaptive status. These include clinical assessment by interview methods (unstructured, structured, semistructured, direct observation), usually with the aid of clinical instruments that are completed by the evaluator during the interview, and the use of checklists that are completed either by an observer or by the individual being assessed. The distinction between maximum performance and typical performance assessments might be illustrated with some common adaptive behavior items. Reviews of the ILS have been generally negative, and it may not be suitable for disability determination purposes. Adaptive behavior has been an integral, although sometimes unstated, part of the long history of mental retardation and its definition. The AAMR definition is accompanied by five major principles for the assessment and understanding of adaptive behavior: 1. This means that within any one subscale of an adaptive behavior scale, for example, there may be only one or two items typical of performance for a 10-year-old. Thus, considerable variation has been found in the content covered by different scales (Holman & Bruininks, 1985; Thompson et al., 1999). As social cognition has matured as a research discipline, researchers have developed methodologies for assessing social-cognitive processes and have demonstrated the usefulness of these methodologies for detecting the limitations that individuals with mild mental retardation exhibit in their ability to adapt to changing social situations. Consequently, they have difficulty evaluating which potential strategy is best to enact in a particular situation (Hickson et al., 1998; Jenkinson & Nelms, 1994). In conjunction with the ICIDH-2, WHO has developed the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS II), which, in its most extensive form, contains 36 items tapping domains of: (1) understanding and communicating, (2) getting around, (3) self-care, (4) getting along with others, (5) household and work activities, and (6) participation in society. The domains assessed by adaptive behavior scales, and thus the individual items included on them, depend in part on the context, target age group, and purpose of the measure. The typical adaptive behavior inventory inquires about both the individuals' skills or abilities (what they can do) and about what they usually do in various circumstances (performance of skills or typical performance). The . Many of the parents of children suspected of meeting criteria for mild mental retardation may themselves experience cognitive difficulties and are relatively nonverbal (Ramey et al., 1996), making semi- or unstructured interviews much more difficult to conduct in a standardized manner. Some caution is needed in interpreting these findings, because the study is small and unrepresentative. The skills or abilities items may be readily assessed through direct measures of the individual with behavioral tasks, while performance or does-do features can be assessed only through extensive behavioral observations that often are impractical given the breadth of the adaptive behavior construct and the number of relevant settings. . Adaptive Behavior For example, assessments are used during classroom instruction to measure students' learning related to the academic content, and different assessments are used to measure students' overall cognitive, physical, or social . No one instrument produced a factor structure that included all of the domains that were identified by the American Association on Mental Retardation (1992). Nevertheless, there is merit to the idea of considering these subtle indicators of social competence, i.e., vulnerability, gullibility, and credulity, as important indicators of adaptive behavior in people with mild cognitive impairments. Mastery assessments typically involve direct testing of a person with a set of tasks administered under standardized conditions that permit comparisons to norms or to absolute standards for performance. These concerns are heightened when informants have a stake in the outcome of the assessment (e.g., when responses may affect eligibility for services). If it is assumed that maladaptive behavior ratings should not contribute to diagnostic decisions about adaptive functioning, then problems in their measurement need not affect this process. Individuals or third-party respondents are asked to indicate their usual feelings or behaviors, not their best or most positive feelings or behaviors. Correspondence Between SSI Classification Domains and Domains or Subdomains in Prominent Adaptive Behavior Measures. "A system of assessment for adaptive behavior, social skills, behavioral function, medication side-effects, and psychiatric disorders." Developers have addressed this issue through several strategies: (1) assessing the interrater and test-retest reliabilities of measures, (2) providing instructions to raters for coding items (e.g., Sparrow et al., 1984a), and (3) specifying training for clinicians and preparation of raters (e.g., Bruininks et al., 1996). Individuals with mental retardation often demonstrate difficulties at the most basic level of recognizing specific types of social cues (e.g., recognizing a person's emotional state on the basis of his or her facial expression) (Adams & Markham, 1991; Gumpel & Wilson, 1996; Harris, 1977; Hobson et al., 1989). The observational behavioral follow-up assessment (0360T, 0361T) is designed by the physician or other qualied health care professional to identify and evaluate factors that may impede the expression of adaptive behavior. The ABS-S:2 provides norms only through age 21 and includes some content specifically appropriate for school settings rather than adult environments. In recent years, existing operational definitions of adaptive behavior and techniques for measuring adaptive behavior have been criticized as being inadequate for determining the presence of significant limitations in individuals with mild mental retardation. The DSM-IV definition identifies four levels of mental retardation based on IQ: mild, moderate, severe, and profound. Various measures differ on the degree to which they attempt to assess the can-do and does-do characteristics of adaptive functioning (Adams, 2000; Sparrow et al., 1984a). Percentage of People Ages 5-18 Lower Than Two Standard Deviations Below the Mean on the Domains of the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System. Following are examples of adaptive behaviors. Such concerns arise in part because intellectual performance, the other criterion associated with mental retardation, is measured by comprehensive intelligence tests that are the most thoroughly researched forms of psychological assessment (Neisser et al., 1996). The ABS-S:2 has excellent interrater reliability. The second social-cognitive process is the generation of strategies for resolving social problems. 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