Adaptive Behavior Scales for Infants and Ear... Health Article

Definition

Adaptive behavior scales are standardized tests used to describe and evaluate the behavior of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, especially those at risk for communication delays and behavior impairments.

Purpose

Adaptive behaviors are learned. They involve the ability to adapt to and manage one's surroundings to effectively function and meet social or community expectations. Infants learn to walk, to talk, and to eat with a spoon. Older children learn to cross the street, to go to the store, and to follow a great variety of rules while interacting with people, such as when to say please and thank you. Good adaptive behavior promotes independence at home, at school, and in the community. Undesirable or socially unacceptable behaviors that interfere with the acquisition of desired skills and with the performance of everyday activities are classified as maladaptive behaviors, or more commonly, behavior problems. Maladaptive behavior interferes with child's achievement of independence because the child requires more supervision and assistance in order to learn how to behave appropriately.

Problems in developing adaptive skills can occur in children of any age. For example, difficulties can develop in mastering basic functional skills (such as talking, walking, or toileting), in learning academic skills and concepts, or in making social and vocational adjustments. Adaptive behavior scales are evaluation tools designed to help care providers improve their assessments of the abilities and needs of infants and children who have disabilities or are at risk for developmental delays.

Description

Many different adaptive behavior scales are used in the United States for assessment purposes. The most widely used are the Developmental Profile II (DPII), the Early Coping Inventory (ECI), the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID), the Scales of Independent Behavior—Revised (SIB-R), the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS), and the Adaptive Behavior Scales (ABS).

Developmental Profile II (DPII)

The DP-II behavior scale is used to screen for developmental delays and compare a child's development to that of other children who are in the same age group. This scale is a check-off list of 186 skills. A parent or therapist who knows the child well simply indicates whether the child has mastered the skill in question. The DPII, which can be administered from infancy to age nine, assesses development in the following areas:

• Physical development: Large and small muscle coordination, strength, stamina, flexibility, and sequential motor skills.
• Self-help development: Ability to cope independently with the environment, for example, to eat, dress, and take care of self and others.
• Social development: Interpersonal abilities, emotional needs, and how the child relates to friends, relatives, and other adults.
• Academic development: Intellectual abilities and skills required for academic achievement; IQ (intellectual quotient) score.
• Communication development: Expressive and receptive communication skills, including written, spoken, and body language.

Early Coping Inventory (ECI)

The ECI measures adaptive behavior. It is based on observation and is used to assess the coping-related behaviors that are used by infants and toddlers in everyday living. Analysis of a child's scores provides information about level of effectiveness, coping style, and specific coping strengths and weaknesses. The findings can then be used to plan educational and therapeutic interventions. The ECI can also be used to involve parents in its use as a means of increasing knowledge of the child. The ECI, which can be administered to infants aged four to 36 months or to children with disabilities, has 48 test items that are divided into three broad coping clusters:

• Sensorimotor organization: According to the famous developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget, infants learn, from birth to approximately age two, to coordinate all their sensory experiences (sights, sounds, etc.) with their motor behaviors. At this stage of development, children start to explore and understand the world around them by doing things like sucking, grasping, and crawling. This part of the ECI tests the child's level of sensorimotor skills: visual attention, reaction to touch, self-regulation of basic body functions, tolerance for various body positions, and activity level depending on various situations.
• Reactive behavior: This behavior includes a child's capacity to accept emotional warmth and support from other people and to react to the feelings and moods of others. The ECI can assess reactive behavior, including tolerance of frustration, ability to "bounce back" after stressful events, and capacity to adapt to changes in the environment.
• Self-initiated behavior: This part of the ECI tests the ability of a child to initiate action in order to communicate needs, to try new behaviors, to achieve a goal, as well as problem-solving abilities and level of persistence during activities.