Clinical Assessment of Child and Adolescent Personality and ...

322 chapter 14 Adaptive Behavior Scales1. Begin by asking general questions andthen proceed to the specific informationneeded to score items. If one startedwith the Communication domain of theVineland-2, for example, a good startingquestion for a parent of a toddler mightbe something like, “Tell me about someof the things that Tom is saying thesedays.”2. Ask for examples of day-to-day behaviorbecause adaptive behavior scales aredesigned to assess typical behavior ratherthan ability (see Sparrow et al., 2005). Afollow-up expressive language questionmight be, “Tell me the words that youcan remember Tom saying today.”3. Become very familiar with the interviewitems and scoring criteria for specificitems in order to ensure that adequateclarification is sought.4. Conduct the interview topically. Forexample, ask all of the items regardingtelephone skills (answering appropriately,states telephone number, uses payphone, etc.) before proceeding to thenext topic.5. Pursue questioning until you have aclear picture of the child’s day-to-daybehavior. Once you have achieved thisportrait, you can confidently rate thechild’s behavior on individual items.Omnibus Adaptive BehaviorScalesVineland Adaptive BehaviorScales, 2nd edition (TheVineland-2; Sparrow, Cicchetti,& Balla, 2005)The Vineland-2 (Sparrow et al., 2005) isthe latest version of an assessment toolfor adaptive behavior that traces its rootsto the originator of the adaptive behaviorconstruct, Edgar Doll. Doll created thefirst widely used scale of adaptive behavior,the Vineland Social Maturity Scale. TheVineland-2 and its predecessor (Sparrow,Balla, & Cicchetti, 1984) represent a substantialrevision, adaptation, and extensionof Doll’s original scale.The Vineland-2 consists of a family ofscales each of which possesses characteristicsthat make it well-suited for particularpurposes. The Vineland componentsinclude the following: The Teacher RatingForm assesses adaptive functioning in theclassroom for children ages 3½ through 18.The Survey Interview Form is administeredto parent/caretakers of individual frombirth to age 90 in semi-structured interviewformat (an Expanded Interview Form isalso available). New to the Vineland-2 is aParent/Caregiver Rating Form that allowsparents to rate adaptive behavior items in arating scale format.The Vineland-2 has many uses in additionto its popularity as a tool in assessmentsand diagnoses of mental retardation.The Vineland-2 provides a rather comprehensiveassessment of an individual’sbehavioral competencies and can be usedto assess treatment progress, as well as todetermine treatment goals.ContentAside from re-standardization, the mostsubstantial change in the Vineland-2 fromthe previous Vineland is in the expansionof the number of items in each domainand the inclusion of the Parent/CaretakerRating Form (Sparrow et al., 2005). TheVineland-2 includes the same domains asits predecessor: Communication, DailyLiving Skills, Socialization, Motor Skills,and Maladaptive Behavior. The MotorSkills domain is designed for ages frombirth through 6 years and for older individualswith motor handicaps. The MaladaptiveBehavior domain is essentially abehavior problems checklist that assesses