Assessment Tools
Comprehensive/Severe Disabilities
Material Name
Purpose
Age Range
Description
AAC Profile
Assessment:
Communication
Age: 2-99 years
To assess communicative competence and design
an intervention for people who use AAC systems.
Adaptive Behavior
Inventory
Assessment: Daily Living
Skills
Ages: 6 – 18
years, 11 months
Evaluates functional daily living skills. Helps identify
students who may have an intellectual disability or
an emotional disturbance.
Assessment of Basic
Language and Learning
Skills
Assessment: Language
Ages: 3-9 years
For individuals with autism or other developmental
disabilities to identify deficiencies in language,
academic, self-help, and motor skills. Helps plan
and implement and individualized intervention.
Adaptive Behavior
Scale – School
Assessment: Behaviors
Ages: 3-18 years
Evaluates adaptive behaviors that are important for
personal responsibility and dependent living. Also
evaluates social adaptations and maladaptive
behaviors.
Assessment for Persons
Profoundly or Severely
Impaired
Assessment: Receptive
Mental age: 0-8
Stimuli Preferences and months
Communication Output
Helps plan effective interventions for individuals
functioning at the lowest levels of mental
development. Examines individuals’ preferences for
visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli as well as social
interaction and methods of communication output.
Achenbach System of
Empirically Based
Assessment – Child
Behavior Checklist
Assessment: Behavior
Assess children’s behavioral and emotional
problems.
Ages: 6-18 years
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Communication Matrix
Assessment:
Communication
Ages: early
stages of
communication
Communication and
Symbolic Behavior
Scales
Assessment: Language
Skills and Symbolic
Development
Typical children:
Used during natural play routines and other adult6-24 months;
child interactions to assess language skills and
Atypical children: symbolic development.
6-72 months
Comprehensive Test of
Nonverbal Intelligence
Assessment: Nonverbal
reading
Ages: 6 years to
89 years, 11
months
Nonverbal assessment designed to measure
general intelligence of children and adults whose
performance on tests would be negatively affected
by language or motor impairments.
Expressive Vocabulary
Test
Assessment: Expressive
Vocabulary
Age: 2-90+ years
Tests expressive vocabulary and word retrieval. The
individual labels pictures or finds synonyms.
Functional
Communication Profile
Assessment:
Communication
(especially with
individuals with PDD or
autism)
Age: 3 years –
adult
Assesses individuals on the major skill categories of
communication. Can be used for multiple forms of
communication (sign, non-verbal, augmentative,
etc.). Provides an inventory of skills rather than a
score.
Functional
Independence Skills
Handbook
Assessment & Lesson
Age: all ages
Plans: Adaptive
Behavior, Affective skills,
Cognitive Abilities,
Sensorimotor Skills,
Socialization Skills,
Speech and Language,
Vocational
Designed for students with developmental
disabilities or cognitive deficits. A baseline
assessment is given that reflects the student’s
independence in a particular domain. The program
is then implemented. A follow-up assessment is then
performed.
Home and Community
Social Behavior Scales
Assessment: Behavior
Assesses a child’s social-emotional strengths and risk
behaviors at home and in the community.
Ages: grades K12
Communication skills assessment for individuals
functioning at the earliest stages of communication
who may not use speech to express themselves.
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Kaufman Survey of Early
Academic and
Language Skills
Assessment: Academic
and Language Skills
Ages: 3 years to 6 A profile that tests school readiness, identifying
years, 11 months gifted children, evaluating program effectiveness,
and researching children’s early development.
MacArthur-Bates
Communicative
Developmental
Inventories
Assessment: Language
Ages: 8-30
months
Parent report forms for assessing language and
communication skills in infants and young children.
Peabody Individual
Achievement Test –
Revised
Assessment: Academic
Achievement
Ages: grades K12; 5 years to 22
years, 11 months
Measure academic achievement. Assesses
reading, mathematics, and spelling. Multiple
choice format is useful for assessing low functional
individuals or those with limited expressive abilities.
Peabody Picture
Vocabulary Test
Assessment:
Communication
Ages: 2.5 to 90+
years
Measures receptive vocabulary. Easy to administer.
Preschool AAC Checklist Assessment: AAC Skills
and Technology
Developmental
age: 3-9 years
Monitors an individual’s development in AAC skills
and technology use.
Reading-Free
Vocational Interest
Inventory
Assessment: Vocation
Ages: 13+ years
For students who are nonverbal. Matches interests
with occupations for individuals with learning
disabilities, emotional disturbance, or intellectual
disabilities.
Choicemaker SelfDetermination
Assessment
Assessment: SelfDetermination
Ages: grades 612
Measures students’ self-determination skills and
progress in the Choicemaker Self-Determination
Curriculum. Specifically used for students who have
mild or moderate disabilities.
Social Emotional
Evaluation
Assessment: Social Skills
Ages: 6 years to
12 years, 11
months
Evaluates social skills and higher level language
that students need to interact successfully in
everyday situations.
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Sensory Profile
Assessment: Sensory
Ages: 3-10 years
To evaluate individuals’ sensory-related difficulties.
Helps determine how well children process sensory
information in everyday settings.
Social Skills Rating
System
Assessment: Social
Behavior
Ages: 3-18 years
Provides information about a student’s social
behaviors. Uses a teacher, parent, and student
rating form.
Test of Aided
Communication Symbol
Performance
Assessment: AAC
Communication
Ages: All
Helps create a communication board, select an
appropriate AAC device, and establish AAC
intervention goals. Serves as a tool to document
progress in aided communication performance.
Vineland Adaptive
Behavior Scale
Assessment: Disability
Ages: 0-90 years
Used to support the diagnosis of intellectual and
developmental disabilities.
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