Assessment devices like the VB-MAPP, ABLLs, PEAK, and others can be extremely useful. They can serve as a baseline level of skills. They can give useful tasks to get to know the child. They can give the behavior analyst ideas about potential target behaviors. They can give you some progress measures.
But in my experience, there is a downside.
Once you show people the grid – parents, teachers and many behavior analysts – they want to fill in all the boxes. The problem is that this is a natural reinforcer for everyone. We just love to see those boxes colored in with all the “progress” that the child has made!
Now, in some cases that may be perfectly appropriate. But in many, many cases it’s not. Often there are boxes that are extremely critical for a child’s life and others that aren’t. I’ve seen numerous times over the years where children spend enormous amounts of time on tasks that are clearly inappropriate just because a particular box is empty. Don’t waste time on things that aren’t going to last in the long run. Focus on what is going to make a significant impact.
The only thing that matters in the long run is things that maintain. Many of those boxes will require generalization and maintenance programming. If you don’t have time for that maybe that skill isn’t that important.
In summary, there’s nothing wrong with using these types of assessments. They can be extremely useful. Just be careful that you think through your selection of target behaviors. Don’t substitute the assessment grids for thinking about what really matters.