This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, a standardized assessment tool published by American Guidance Service. The paper describes the instrument's structure, including its four primary domains — communication, daily living skills, socialization, and motor skills — and its multiple formats designed for parents, teachers, and clinicians. It also examines the norming process, reliability statistics, and research findings related to teacher and parent rating agreement, concluding that the Vineland is a psychometrically sound and broadly applicable tool for evaluating individuals with developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders.
The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales is published by American Guidance Service. It is designed to determine how functional an individual with developmental disabilities is in everyday life. The version published in 1984 rated children from ages 2 to 18. The recently revised version extends the age range up to 90 (AGS, 2005). The Vineland is frequently used not only with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities but also with individuals who have disorders on the autism spectrum, such as autism and Asperger's syndrome (AGS, 2005).
The Vineland is based on how an individual deals with a variety of real-life situations. Those responses may be either adaptive or maladaptive, and some responses that are age-appropriate at a young age will not be typical of older individuals without any developmental difficulties (Scahill, 2001). The formats include a classroom questionnaire as well as semi-structured interviews, and the instrument provides multiple forms so it can be used to record the observations of teachers, clinicians, and parents — offering a broad-based view of the individual being evaluated.
The items on the questionnaire and interview are grouped into four subdivided domains. The first domain is Communication, which is divided into Receptive, Expressive, and Written subdomains. The second domain is Daily Living Skills, divided into Personal, Domestic, and Community subdomains. The third domain is Socialization, which covers Interpersonal Relationships, Play and Leisure Time, and Coping Skills. Finally, the Motor Skills domain is divided into gross motor skills and fine motor skills (AGS, 2005).
By organizing items into these four domains and their respective subdomains, the Vineland allows evaluators to build a comprehensive profile of an individual's adaptive functioning. This multi-domain structure also makes it possible to identify specific areas of strength and weakness, which is especially valuable when designing individualized intervention plans.
The Vineland was in the process of being revised at the time of this writing, with some revised components already available and others planned for publication in 2006. The new Vineland survey form contains nearly 300 items. It is completed by a parent, guardian, or care provider through a semi-structured interview that allows for open-ended answers (AGS, 2005). An expanded form includes over 575 items (AGS, 2005). The new Vineland thus provides an opportunity for those who know the individual with a developmental disability to offer detailed information about how that person functions on a day-to-day basis.
Interviewers may use the shorter form or the expanded form if more detailed information is needed, or if the shorter form suggests the need to examine certain areas of weakness in greater depth (AGS, 2005). The Classroom Edition includes nearly 250 items that focus on classroom adaptive behavior and is completed by the teacher, though it is interpreted by a qualified diagnostician (AGS, 2005).
Since some forms of the Vineland are conducted in an interview format, they can be time-consuming. The Survey version takes between 20 and 60 minutes, while the expanded interview form may take up to 90 minutes. The version designed for classroom teachers typically takes about 20 minutes to complete (AGS, 2005).
"Standardization sample and scoring procedures"
"Split-half, test-retest, and interrater reliability statistics"
"Research on teacher-parent rating agreement and context"
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.