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**This page updated and current 3/21/10 Regina Claypool-Frey**
Back to ABLLS, VB-MAPP and other Assessments
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The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS), 1998 and the ABLLS-R(evised), 2006
ABLLS: James W. Partington, PhD. & Mark L. Sundberg, PhD.
ABLLS-R: James W. Partington
To purchase the original ABLLS (1998) No longer in print.
To purchase the ABLLS-R (2006)
Evaluacion de Habilidades de Lenguaje y Aprendizaje Basicos. (ABLLS-R)
WebABLLS (2007)
Also, Teaching Language to Children with Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities
(Sundberg & Partington, 1998)
Click on a topic to jump down
Purpose of The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS)/(ABLLS-R)/(WebABLLS)
- To help identify language and other critical skills in need of intervention necessary for a child to become more capable of learning from his everyday experiences
- To provide a method for identifying a child’s specific skills in a variety of learning domains
- To provide a curriculum guide for selection of education objectives
- To provide a method for visually displaying the acquisition of new skills and tracking of mastery.
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Consists of 2 manuals; Manual 1: Assessment & Curriculum Guide
Criterion -referenced information regarding the child’s current skills; asset and a limitation.
--Not designed to compare student to his/her peers
--Although roughly developmental, not all of the domains are based on scope and sequence progression
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Domains
The changes from the ABLLS (1998) (No longer in print 2010) to the ABLLS-R (2006) have been highlighted to illustrate that fairly substantial changes were made to most of the domains in the assessment.
In some cases a fluency criteria has been added so that the speed as well as accuracy of response has been required. Other changes are re-sequencing of domains, adding prerequisites or splitting tasks, and new skills.
BASIC LEARNER SKILLS (Sections A-P) - Those in blue changed in ABLLS-R
A: Cooperation & Reinforcer Effectiveness
B: Visual Performance: crucial prerequisite: absent or weak visual performance skills child predict problems with receptive discrimination and other language skills
C: Receptive Language: ability to follow simple directions
D: Imitation: Critical for learning; building blocks for learning; important to consider gross, fine, speed, sequence,; used to teach sign language. (See also Y: Gross Motor & Z: Fine Motor).
E: Vocal Imitation: ability to repeat exactly what is heard; used to shape articulation or later on more complex constructs
F: Requests (mands):should (at least!!) occur 20-30 times/day (spontaneous); saturate environment with highly reinforcing items, and prime motivation. (see also section I: Spontaneous Vocalizations)
G: Labeling (tacts): when kids are picking up 100+ labels, collecting data isn’t as important; important for the purpose of joint attn; child who can label 50-100 items would be benefited by adding complex labels (i.e. noun-verb)
H: Intraverbals : critical for conversational speech & social interaction; answering “wh” questions or responding to something said by another person or a property of something that is NOT present
I: Spontaneous Vocalizations
J: Syntax & Grammar: emphasize function before form;
K: Play & Leisure
L: Social Interaction
M: Group Instruction
N: Classroom Routines
(No O)
P: Generalized Responding
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ACADEMIC Skills (Sections Q-T) - Those in blue changed in ABLLS-R
Q. Reading
R. Math
S: Writing
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SELF-HELP Skills (Sections U-X) - Those in blue changed in ABLLS-R
U: Dressing
V: Eating
W: Grooming
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MOTOR Skills (Sections Y-Z) - Those in blue changed in ABLLS-R
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Layout of the (ABLLS)/(ABLLS-R) Protocol.
Columns
Task (i.e.; A3,H7, L2)
Scores ( 0-2, 0-4)
Task name (i.e.; Look at non-reinforcing item)
Task objective (i.e. student will look at a non-reinforcing item presented by an instructor)
Question: (i.e. If you hold up a non-reinforcing item, will the student look at it?)
Examples: (i.e. when you hold up a shoe, student will look at it)
Criteria: (i.e. 2= readily finds in any position, 1= requires some prompts to respond)
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Manual 2. Scoring Instructions and IEP Development Guide
- Provides instructions for scoring and completing the grids
- Provides strategies on how to use the info attained from the protocol to develop an IEP
- It is time intensive to complete which can initially be intimidating and can keep individuals from wanting to complete it.
- The tool can be intimidating due to the items being so specific
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Sources of Info Needed to Complete the (ABLLS)/(ABLLS-R)
- Informal interacting with child on a regular basis
- Observation of child in a variety of settings
- Formal presentation of tasks
- Direct observation is expected.
- Assumption or guessing may result in an inaccurate assessment. When in doubt, directly test.
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Who Can Complete the (ABLLS)/(ABLLS-R)
(keeping in mind the requirements for objective and accurate scoring across environments. Reading the Scoring and IEP development guide helps to guide how to score. Some advise that if in doubt of ability to understand how to evaluate criteria or to be objective, to have an experienced professional conduct the assessment).
- Parent
- Educator
- Behavior analyst
- Psychologist
- Speech & language pathologist
- Occupational therapist
- Other professionals responsible for developing & monitoring the student’s educational program
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Scoring & Tracking
Under score vs. over score; be conservative.
If you overscore the problem is that prerequisites for future skills may be weak, or the child may be expected to perform at a level beyond real abilities.
No basal or ceiling
Don't feel that because the top level is met that the skill no longer requires instruction; for instance, mands, tacts and intraverbals would/could/should be ongoing.
Do it before any major change in programming (typically 1.5 months prior to IEP)
Update when student is making quick progress (early learner)
Use to monitor progress/IEP updates quarterly
Color in the circle in the absence of the skill (zero)
Once skills are filled into the right of the grid, those skills are moved to maintenance and generalization (Note: some skills, such as mands, tacts and other language goals may continue to be worked on, although mastered items may go to next skill hierarchy.
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IEP Development
Usually 20-30 objectives
Want to leave time for incidental learning and generalized instruction
Add new tasks/objectives when others are mastered
Most objectives will be devoted to basic learner skills (A-P)
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A "starting point" assessment: The Behavioral Language Assessment; not an ABLLS/ABLLS-R substitute
The Behavioral Language Assessment, chapter 2 of the volume, Teaching Language to Children with Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities (Sundberg & Partington, 1998), contains 12 sections assessing a variety of basic language-related skills including
- cooperation,
- requests/mands,
- motor imitation,
- vocal imitation/echoics,
- matching-to-sample,
- receptive language,
- expressive language/tacting,
- receptive by function, feature, class;
- conversation/intraverbal,
- letters and numbers, and
- social interaction.
Each section is divided into five levels.
The design reflects the average performance of a typical two- to three-year-old.
Chapter 3 is the interpretation of the assessment, including recommendations to further assessment via the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS) (Partington & Sundberg, 1998a).
Assists with determining weaknesses in a child’s verbal repertoire and where to begin with a language intervention program
Quick & easy tool which can be used to ‘jump start’ programming
- Person completing assessment needs to determine most appropriate level based on typical daily observed behaviors, NOT emerging skills
- Each level is stated, fully described
- Meant for children with limited verbal skills
- Not a complete assessment, just an overview
- This is meant to do when you have limited time, or are just receiving a new student
- Most of these children receive score of 5 with the possible exception of the letters and numbers sections
- This level of linguistic performance allows typical children to learn from their everyday experiences, and allows them to effectively engage in social interactions with both peers and adults
- Score of 1 or 2 would be indicative of a child with severe language delays who have failed to acquire even the simplest levels of communication
- Most children with language delays will fall in between those two points.
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2/17/08
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