This assessment tool is in the form of a questionnaire and it is administered in a semi-structured interview.
Recognizing the need for flexibility of assessment tools, the updated forms of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale comes in three editions, the Survey Form, the Expanded Form, and the Classroom Edition.
· Survey Form – This is the edition that is closest in content to the original version of VABS that was published in 1984 by the American Guidance Services. It has 297 items distributed over the four domains. The child’s parent or primary caregiver answers the items, usually within 20 minutes to an hour.
· Expanded Form – This edition is most useful to teachers and psychologists who are planning the IEP of the special child. With 280 questions added to the first 297 questions of the survey form for a total of 577 items, the results will provide a comprehensive evaluation of the special child’s needs. The results are also used to put together any treatment or rehabilitative program. This edition can be completed within 60 to 90 minutes.
· Classroom Edition – This edition is composed of 244 items that evaluates a child’s adaptive behavior inside the classroom. The teacher answers the questions but only a qualified professional can interpret the scores.
Due to the nature of its administration, in which adult observers, such as the parent and the teacher, answer the items, this assessment test is used to assess the adaptive behaviors only of individuals who are 18 years old and younger. In cases of individuals who are older and whose social functioning abilities have already been identified as below developmental expectations, the VABS can be utilized.
The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale has been nationally standardized using respondents who were stratified according to factors that could significantly influenced the answers to the items, such as gender, age, race, geographical region, size of community, and parental education. For the interpretation of scores, the procedure was developed by Angoff and Robertson and similar to that of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, in which there are score equivalents for the raw scores in each domain, percentile ranks, age equivalents, adaptive levels, and maladaptive levels.