Association for Behavior Analysis International

It is important for BCBAs to have effective assessment strategies for learners in school settings (i.e., K-12) who have multiple, complex disabilities. Individuals with developmental disabilities may present with multiple disabilities that include cognitive, motor, and sensory (i.e., vision and/or hearing) impairments. These learners may be so significantly impacted by their disabilities that traditional assessments do not provide meaningful program planning information. These presentations will provide assessment strategies that are beneficial for planning instructional programs. Underlying the assessment strategies is a meaningful method of assessing communicative behaviors of individuals who are non-vocal and communicating at a pre-symbolic level. Understanding how individuals with complex, multiple disabilities are communicating, even if in unconventional ways, is essential to shape those behaviors and to conduct other assessments. Although it is essential in developing intervention plans to identify stimuli that function as reinforcers, it can be difficult to use traditional preference assessments. Providing BCBAs with a strategy for conducting a preference assessment with learners with severe, multiple disabilities and limited experiences, repertoires, and symbolic communication skills is important. Similarly, it is important to have a method of conducting preference assessments linked to vocational tasks for older learners who have multiple disabilities and complex educational needs.

Intermediate -- understanding of learners with complex, multiple disabilities; understanding of impact of vision and hearing impairments on learning; understanding of need for specialized assessment strategies for learners with severe, multiple disabilities

Behavior analysts are required to assess client behavior to (1) determine need for services, (2) identify and prioritize socially significant goals, and (3) relevant skill strengths/weaknesses. Behavior analysts are required to identify potential interventions based on assessment results and the best available scientific evidence. Learners with severe, multiple disabilities that include impairments in both vision and hearing can present unique challenges to behavior analysts in targeting appropriate communication goals for skill acquisition. This group of learners present with unique educational challenges due to the complexity of their multiple disabilities. According to the National Center on Deaf-Blindness (2023), 74% of learners identified as deafblind have additional speech/language/communication impairments and various additional impairments: cognitive impairments (64%), physical impairments (58%), and complex health care needs (52%). Given the unique learning characteristics of learners who are identified as deafblind, their level of communication and modes of communication are quite variable. The goal of this presentation is to provide aggregated data from assessment results of 25 young learners, preschool through early elementary age and their communication behaviors identified through the use of the Communication Matrix (Rowland, 2004), an assessment instrument developed to identify behaviorally-based communication goals and strategies for intervention with learners who are deafblind.

Identification of stimuli that function as reinforcers is critical to developing intervention plans. Stimulus preference assessments (SPAs) are key to identifying stimuli that have an increased likelihood of serving as reinforcers. However, behavior analysts may have difficulty selecting and conducting appropriate assessments that lead to valid results with individuals with severe and profound, multiple disabilities due to the limited experiences, repertoires, and symbolic communication skills of these learners. These individuals present unique challenges to behavior analysts, as they may be unable to participate meaningfully in typical SPAs (i.e., multiple stimulus, paired choice). This presentation will provide a description of procedures to conduct a successive choice SPA that can be used to: (1) identify preferred stimuli to be incorporated into programming, (2) preferred classes of stimuli and sensory systems, (3) aversive stimuli to avoid, and (4) voluntary behaviors and changes in affect that can be shaped and maintained as communicative responses (Logan & Gast, 2001). A successive choice SPA includes successive presentation of single stimuli from multiple sensory categories (i.e., olfactory, tactile, gustatory, auditory, visual, vestibular, multisensory) and incorporates both approach and engagement measures. A real-life exemplar demonstrating SPA procedures will be presented to guide participants in application of the process.