The vineland

adaptive behavior
scale.
Gloria Zakharia

Psychological assessment
 Table of Contents.

Definition, history Description of the

01 and theoretical 02 test and 03 Validity
background standardization

04 Scoring 05 reflection
 Definition, history and
theoretical background
overview of the assessment as told by litterature
The vineland adaptive behavior scale
● Assessment tool that utilizes semi-structured interview to measure
adaptive behavior and diagnose intellectual disabilities,
developmental disabilities autism and developmental delay.
● Was firstly introduced by Dr Sara sparrow and her colleagues
Dominic V Ciccheti and David Balla in 1984
● Can be administered to individuals between ages of 0 to 90 years
● assesses social skills across the lifespan
About the author
● Dr sara sparrow (1933-2010)
● master’s degree in Speech Pathology and a
doctorate in Clinical Psychology and
Neuropsychology
● served on the Committee on Disability
Determination for Mental Retardation, a
committee of the National Research
Council (NRC) of the National Academy of
Sciences (NAS)
History and theoretical background
The vineland adaptive behavior scale was developed as a revised version of
Edgard doll’s Social Maturity scale, which was originally used to examine the
relationship between mental deficiency and social competence

The 8 areas in the VSMS are similar to that of the recent VABS:
• Self help general
• Self-help dressing
• Socialization
• Locomotion
• Self help- eating
• Communication
• Occupation
• direction
 History and theoretical background

• Doll’s main theory is that adaptive behavior is

developmental , multidimensional and can be measured
using a third party interview
• Sparrow expanded on this idea and developed a semi-
structured interview for assessment
 The three versions

1984 2005 2016

VAS-I VAS-II VAS-III

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 Description of the
test
Construct and administration technique
● The vineland adaptive behavioral scale compromises three main domains:

○ Communication: receptive, expressive and written language

○ Daily living skills: personal, domestic community

○ Socialization: interpersonal relationships, play and leisure time, coping skills

● Each domain has three different subdomains
● An extra domain is to be added for younger children that is Motor skills
● An optional maladaptive behavior index is available
● According to the latest version of the VABS :

● interview form (0-90) : to be administered by the interviewer , semi

structured interview
● parent/caregiver form (0-90) : filled by the caregiver of the child
● teacher form (3-21) : filled by the teacher

● Each of the forms include a domain level, and a comprehensive level

 Test standardization

● The sample for vineland-3 was constituted of 2,560 individuals for the
Interview and parent/caregiver form , and 1,415 individuals for the
teacher form
● Population in the United states , matched to sex, gender, ethnicity
● An Arabic version of the scale is available , called the VABSA
 Validity

Reliability and validity

 Reliability and validity
● Internal consistency : 0.94 and 0.99 for adaptive domains

○ All domain levels ABC 0.86 TO 0.97

Test-retest reliability : ABC corrected value 0.64 to 0.94

0.62 to 0.94 for all domains

Inter-rater reliability ranged between 0.61 and 0.87

Except for the socialization domain r =0.58 and 0.93

● Validity: concurrent validity r = 0.82 to r = 0.83

C. ASparrowS. S.CicchettiD. V.SaulnierC. A. (2016).

scoring
 Scoring
● ABC score domains are derived , computed either
by hand or on Q global
● The Scores 85 and below are considered
moderately low to low which indicate a
significant skill deficit when compared to similar
aged peers, especially for a score below 70.
Maladaptive behavior scores that are at 15 or
below are considered low to no concern, while
scores at 17 or above indicate clinical significance
and a need for treatment intervention.
Reflection
● Easy to use method • Expensive
● Covers a wide age range ( 0 to 90 years old) • Challenging to score manually
● Excellent reliability and validity • Highly variable test-retest reliability
● Assesses wide range of mental disabilities • Responder bias
THANK YOU!