USING THE VERBAL BEHAVIOR

MILESTONES ASSESSMENT AND

PLACEMENT PROGRAM (VB-MAPP) TO
ASSESS LANGUAGE AND GUIDE
PROGRAMMING
MARK STAFFORD, MA, BCBA, LPA, LBA
STAFFORD BEHAVIORAL CONSULTING, PLLC
NAVIGATION BEHAVIORAL CONSULTING, LLC

Virginia Department of Education

Training and Technical Assistance Center and
Old Dominion University
 Acknowledgments
• Thanks to:
• Kelly Barrett and Robin “Dedie” McCracken for inviting me and for
helping with all the details.
• Mike Miklos of the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance
Network (PaTTAN) www.pattan.net/videos
• Megan Miller, Katie Fitterer, and Clair Ellis of Navigation Behavioral
Consulting for referring me to T-TAC and for videos.
• Chris Wensil of The Mariposa School for an earlier version of this
workshop
• Mark Sundberg, Ph.D. for allowing me to use the VB-MAPP and materials
 Prerequisite Skills
• In the VB-MAPP Manual on p.2 of the introduction,
Sundberg writes, “In order to obtain the maximum
benefit from the VB-MAPP, it is essential that the
assessor have a basic understanding of the principles of
behavior analysis and Skinner’s analysis of verbal
behavior.”
• ATS Training on VB and VB-MAPP
 A Brief History of Verbal Behavior
• 1934 Alfred N. Whitehead challenges B.F. Skinner to explain his
behavior as he says, “No black scorpion is falling upon this table”
during a dinner at Harvard. The next morning Skinner began an
outline of Verbal Behavior.
• 1957 Verbal Behavior is published (23 years later)
• 1963 Joseph Spradlin publishes the Parsons Language Sample
• 1974-1979 Mark Sundberg leads a group of graduate students in VB
research at the Kalamazoo Valley Multihandicap Center under the
direction of Gerald Shook and advised by Jack Michael.
 A Brief History of Verbal Behavior
• 1979 Sundberg, M. L., Ray, D. A., Braam, S. E., Stafford, M. W., Reuber, T.
M., & Braam, C. A. Publish: A manual for the use of B. F. Skinner's
analysis of verbal behavior for language assessment and programming
at Western Michigan University.
• 1982 Johnson, K.R., Sundberg, M.L. and Partington, J.W. Publish the first
issue of the VB News. This becomes the journal The Analysis of Verbal
Behavior in 1985.
• 1998 Sundberg and Partington publish the first Assessment of Basic
Learning and Language Skills (ABLLS) and the book Teaching
Language to Children with Autism and Other Developmental
Disabilities
• 2008 Sundberg publishes the Verbal Behavior Milestones and Placement
Program (VB-MAPP)
 The Importance of Language and Social
Behavior
• The primary focus of an intervention program for children with autism
should be on addressing the three core deficits of autism: language
skills, social skills and limited interests.
• There are other skill areas to improve, such as self-care, visual motor,
academics, behavior problems and fine and gross motor, but the core
deficits as well as barriers to learning are the most critical.
• Careful application of treatments based in Applied Behavior Analysis
and Verbal Behavior have much to offer in treating these deficits.
 A Behavioral Approach
to Language
• Language is behavior.
• Language behavior can be changed by altering the contingencies under
which it occurs.
• Basic teaching procedures and methodology derived from Applied Behavior
Analysis (e.g., prompting, fading, shaping, chaining, reinforcement,
extinction) have been applied to numerous behavior deficits in a variety of
populations.
• These procedures and methods have a solid research foundation that can be
easily found in over 1500 empirical studies that have been conducted over
the past 60 years
• The functional analysis of behavior - Functional Behavior Assessment (e.g.
Iwata, 1994) Functional Communication Training (Carr & Durand, 1985)
 ABA Contingencies:
The Functions of Behavior

ABC
• Antecedents is the term used to describe stimuli (anything that can be
perceived by one of the sensory systems) that occur before behavior
occur and Motivating Operations.
• Behavior is anything a person does. “If a dead man can’t do it, it’s
behavior.” Walking, eating, doing math computations, talking, and
even thinking are all considered “behavior” in Behavior Analysis.
• Consequences are stimuli that occur immediately after a behavior.
• A single instance of a behavior is called a response.
 Antecedents
• Antecedents consist of MOs and stimuli that occur just before a
response.
• Stimuli that indicate that a response is likely to result in a positive
outcome (reinforcement) are called Discriminative Stimuli (SD).
When that stimulus is present one can discriminate that a good
outcome will result from a behavior.
• Other antecedents include the biological state of the individual.
Someone who feels good is likely to behave better than someone who
is ill, has a headache or stomach ache.
• The individual’s recent history is also important.
 Motivating Operations (MO)
• MOs alter the value of something as a reinforcer.
• Value can increase
• Value can decrease

• MOs can occur naturally or can be brought about by other events or

behaviors.
• Natural: hunger, thirst
• Brought about by other events: drawing a cat example

• Increases the likelihood of behaviors occurring which have resulted in

obtaining SR+ in the past.
• Motivation is affected by many factors: difficulty of the behavior, physical condition
of the individual, time since last contact with the reinforcer, quality and quantity of available reinforcer
 Consequences
• There are three basic kinds of consequences which follow behaviors:
• Reinforcers: A stimulus which immediately follows a response and increases
the frequency of that response in the future. We also say it increases the rate
of the response in the future. The process of providing reinforcers and
increasing the rate of a response is called reinforcement. (SR)
• Punishers: A stimulus which immediately follows a response and decreases
the frequency of that response in the future. The process of providing
punishers and decreasing the rate of a response is called punishment. (SP)
• The third kind of consequence is the withholding of reinforcement that has
followed a behavior in the past. This results in the eventual reduction in the
behavior and the term for this is extinction.
 A Functional Analysis of Verbal Behavior:
The Basic Principles of Operant Behavior

A B C

Discriminiative Stimulus (SD) Response Reinforcement

Motivating Operation (MO) Punishment
Extinction
Conditioned Reinforcement
Conditioned Punishment
Intermittent Reinforcement
 A Behavioral Analysis
of Language (Skinner, 1957)
• Verbal Behavior is defined as “behavior reinforced through the
mediation of other persons” (Skinner, 1957, p 2.) Those persons (the
listeners) must be “responding in ways which have been (learned)
precisely in order to reinforce such speakers.” (Skinner, 1957, p 225,
italics in original.)
• “In defining verbal behavior as behavior reinforced through the
mediation of other persons we do not, and cannot, specify any one
form, mode, or medium.” (Skinner, 1957, p. 14) “Verbal” behavior is
not necessarily “vocal” behavior.
 A Behavioral Analysis
of Language (Skinner, 1957)
• Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior is an analysis of the behavior of
an individual speaker.
• Skinner disagrees with the idea that “expressive and receptive
language” are two expressions of one underlying language ability.
• In programs based on an expressive/receptive language a child is
credited with knowing the “meaning of a word” when he can say a
word when shown an object and touch the object when asked. But
child may not “use the word” in other situations.
• The behavior of the speaker is much more complex
• The listener’s behavior is considered separately.
 The Verbal Operants
• An Operant (operant class) is a group of responses that have the same
function or occur under similar contingencies
• Mand: Asking for reinforcers. Asking for “shoes” because you want
your shoes
• Tact: Naming or identifying objects, actions, events, etc. Saying
“shoes” because you see your shoes
• Listener: Following instructions or complying with the mands of
others. Touching a picture of shoes when asked “Touch the shoes”
• Echoic: Repeating what is heard. Saying “shoes” after someone else
says “shoes”
 The Verbal Operants
• Intraverbal: Answering questions or having conversations where your
words are controlled by other words. Saying “shoes” because someone else
says “What do you need to put on your feet?”
• Copying-a-text: Writing “shoes” because someone else writes “shoes”
• Textual: Reading words. Saying “shoes” because you see the written word
“shoes”
• Transcription: Writing and spelling words spoken to you. Writing “shoes”
because you hear “shoes” spoken
• Imitation: Copying someone’s motor movements (as they relate to sign
language)
 Mand
• The mand is a verbal response which occurs with a motivating
operation as the antecedent and the reinforcement is specific to that
motivating operation.
MO Mand SR+ specific to Mo
• Saying “water” when one is thirsty.
• Shouting “stop” to prevent someone for entering danger.
• Asking, “How do I get to Hampton, Virginia?” when your GPS is dead
and you are late for a training.
 Tact
• A tact is a verbal response to a nonverbal stimulus and the
reinforcement is generalized conditioned reinforcement.

Nonverbal Stimulus Verbal Response Conditioned Sr+

• Saying “cup” when you see a cup.

• Saying “fighter jet” when you hear one.
• Saying, “I have a head ache” when there is pain in your head.
 Echoic
• A verbal response to a verbal stimulus which is the same as the verbal
stimulus heard and the reinforcement is generalized conditioned
reinforcement.

Verbal Stimulus Matching Verbal R Conditioned Sr+

• Saying “ball” when someone else says, “ball.”

• After someone gives you directions you repeat them.
• The stimulus and the response have “point-to-point correspondence
 Intraverbal
• An intraverbal is a verbal response to a verbal stimulus but the response
does not match the stimulus.

• Verbal Stimulus Nonmatching Verbal R Conditioned Sr+

• Saying, “truck” when a teacher says, “tell me a vehicle.”

• Saying, “lying eyes” when someone else says, “You can’t hide your…”
• Saying the above definition when someone says, “What’s an intraverbal?”
• There is no point-to-point correspondence.
Multiply Controlled Verbal Behavior
A B C
SD 1 See truck Reinforcement “Right, Truck!”
SD1 “What’s this” Response
MO (play with truck) Reinforcement (Play with truck)
Assessment of an Individual Child’s Needs
• Our first task is to identify the existing skills of each child
• Our next task is to identify the language, social, behavioral,
and learning barriers that are preventing more rapid learning
• The failure to conduct an appropriate assessment results in one
of the biggest problems in programs that serve children with
autism: An inappropriate curriculum
• We need a tool that is easy to use and will provide teachers,
parents, and staff with the necessary information to develop an
appropriate intervention program
 Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and
Placement Program: The VB-MAPP
• Based on Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior
• Based on typical language development milestones
• An assessment should probe a representative sample of a
repertoire
• Typical verbal milestones provide the frame for the sample
• By identifying milestones, as opposed to a whole task
analysis, the focus can be sharper, the direction clearer
• Milestones can help to avoid focusing on minor steps, and
targeting skills for intervention that are developmentally
inappropriate
Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and
Placement Program: The VB-MAPP

• Field test data from approximately 75 typically developing

children and over 200 children with autism
• Based on the body of empirical research that provides the
foundation of Behavior Analysis
• Based on the empirical research on Skinner’s analysis of
verbal behavior
• Assesses skills equivalent to those of children up to 48
months of age.
 Five Components of the VB-MAPP
• The VB-MAPP: Milestones Assessment contains 170 verbal
behavior milestones across 3 developmental levels (0-18 months, 18-
30 months, 30-48 months) and 16 different verbal operants and related
skills
• The VB MAPP: Barriers Assessment examines 24 common learning
and language barriers faced by children with autism
• The VB MAPP: Transition Assessment evaluates a child’s ability to
learn in a less restrictive educational environment across 18 different
skills
 Five Components of the VB-MAPP
• The VB-MAPP: Skills Task Analysis and Tracking provides a
further breakdown of the different skill areas in the form of a checklist
for skills tracking
• The VB-MAPP: Placement and IEP Goals provides
recommendations for program development for children based on their
VB-MAPP profiles, and their specific scores for each of the 170
milestones and the 24 Barriers. In addition, over 200 IEP objectives
directly linked to the skills and barriers assessments, and a verbal
behavior intervention program are provided
 VB-MAPP Milestones Assessment
• The 16 skill areas on the VB-MAPP include:
• The elementary verbal operants (e.g., echoic, mand, tact,
intraverbal)
• Listener skills
• Imitation skills
• Vocal output
• Independent play
• Social skills and social play
• Visual perceptual and matching-to-sample skills
• Grammatical and syntactical skills (Linguistics)
• Group and classroom skills
• Beginning academic skills (Reading, Writing, Math)
 VB-MAPP Milestones Assessment
• The milestones are broken into three developmental levels
(see Skills Form)
• Level 1: 0-18 months
• Level 2: 18-30 months
• Level 3: 30-48 months
• The scores for each skill are approximately balanced across
levels
• The Master Scoring Form is designed for 4 administrations
 Scoring the Milestones Assessment
• In each level, there are 5 items and 5 possible points for each skill area
(e.g., Level 1, Mand)
• Each of the 170 items is scored 0, 1, or 1/2 based on the criteria in the
VB-MAPP instruction manual
• Looking for the operant level or where the child skills are now. If the
skill is clearly below the child’s operant level score quickly and move
on, if it is close to the criterion level, test the skill.
• Generally, stop the assessment in an area if a child misses 3 milestones
in a row (ceiling). But give credit if “splinter skills” are apparent.
 Scoring the Milestones Assessment
• Items can be assessed through Direct Testing (T), Observation (O),
Either testing or observation (E), or Timed Observation (TO). (At the
top of each page)
• Approximations can be scored as correct. (Manual p. 18) But
continue to shape a better word or sign. Don’t hold language back
because words are not pronounced or signed perfectly.
• Total the scores for the milestones in an area and enter that score in the
“Assessment” box at the upper right of each area and shade the
appropriate milestones on the Master Scoring Form. *
 Practice Counting Operants
• Groups of 4 people
• Distribute operants around group
• Add imitation at bottom
• Watch video and score one or more operants
• Watch 2nd time and score again.
• Compare results
 Early Echoic Skills Assessment (EESA)
• Five Groups of Sounds/Words to echo.
• Assessor models the sound and asks the child to repeat it
• Scoring is similar “X” = 1, “/” = ½, Blank = 0 (100 total points)
• Total all the points scored in each group and record in the
“Assessment” boxes on the right side of the form
• Use the Manual (pp. 41-44) to convert the score onto the Milestones
Master Scoring Form
 Remaining Skill Areas of the
Milestones Assessment
• Listener: Can the child attend to respond to what others say up to responding to
complex sentences and parts of speech.
• Visual Perceptual Skills and Matching to Sample: From responding to visual
stimuli and match objects or pictures up to complex visual patterns and sorting by
categories.
• Independent Play: Does the child engage in play that is automatically reinforcing
from exploratory play to cause and effect toys to arts and crafts and pre-academic
activities such as drawing.
• Social Behavior and Play: Does the child seek out and engage in appropriate
social play and interactions at Level 1 to engaging in social verbal behavior with
peers and skills such as making verbal exchanges.
• Motor Imitation: Addresses how well the child can imitate the behavior of others.
Beginning with basic motor movements in Level 1 to imitating novel movements
on the first try. Motor Imitation is not included in Level 3.
 Remaining Skill Areas of the
Milestones Assessment
• Spontaneous Vocal Responding: What sounds and words does the child say
without any external stimulation. This area is assessed in Level 1 only.
• Listener Responding by Feature, Function and Class (LRFFC): This area
assesses the child’s ability to respond to speakers based on classification and
function of objects. Found in Levels 2 and 3.
• Classroom Routines and Group Skills: This area assesses a child’s ability to
function in a classroom or as part of a group and to benefit from group instruction.
Found in Levels 2 and 3.
• Linguistic Sturcture: This area assess pronunciation and grammar skills from
combining words to use of proper syntax. Found in Levels 2 and 3.
• Reading, Writing and Math: The “academic” areas of the VB-MAPP address
simple skills that are probably considered “pre-academic. These areas are in Level
3 only.
 VB-MAPP Barriers Assessment
• Barriers Assessment is a tool to identify and assess learning and
language barriers that may impede a child’s progress.
• Once a specific barrier has been identified, a more detailed descriptive
and/or functional analysis of that problem is required.
• Intervention with a child with autism or other developmental disability
should include both skills that need to be increased (mands, tacts,
intraverbals, play and social skills) as well as behaviors that need to be
decreased (tantrums, aggression, rote responding, or self-injury).
• Careful analysis should be given to those behaviors which need to be
decreased and the assistance of a professional (such as a BCBA) with
experience in problem behavior should be consulted in many cases.
 Kinds of Barriers
• Negative Behaviors: Tantrums, aggression, self-injury
• Any of the verbal operants can be weak, absent or impaired in some
manner.
• Social behavior may be impaired by weak motivation for social interaction
or defective mands. Defects in other operants may result in problems with
social interaction.
• Fundamental barriers that make progress difficult such as failure to
generalize, weak motivators, prompt dependency.
• Behaviors that compete with learning such as self-stimulation, hyperactive
behavior or sensory defensiveness.
• Physical barriers such as problems articulation and imitation that are due to
neurological issues or matching and LRFFC problems may be due to
problems with vision.
 The Barriers
• Negative Behavior
• Instructional control (escape/avoidance)
• Impaired mand
• Impaired tact
• Impaired motor imitation
• Impaired echoic (e.g., echolalia)
• Impaired matching-to-sample
• Impaired listener repertoires (e.g., LD, LRFFC)
 The Barriers

• Impaired intraverbal
• Impaired social skills
• Prompt dependency, long latencies
• Scrolling responses
• Impaired scanning skills
• Failure to make conditional discriminations (CDs)
• Failure to generalize
• Weak or atypical MOs
 The Barriers
• Response requirements weakens the MO
• Reinforcer dependent
• Self-stimulation
• Articulation problems
• Obsessive-compulsive behavior
• Hyperactivity
• Failure to make eye contact
• Sensory defensiveness
 Scoring The Barriers
• The only assessment in the VB-MAPP where a high score is bad.
• Rate each barrier using a 0-4 scale according to the criterion in the Manual
(pp. 99-126). Generally a score of 0 indicates no problem, 1 a mild problem
that minimally interferes, 2 a moderate problem and further analysis is
warranted, 3 indicates a persistent problem needing further assessment and
formal intervention, and 4 indicates a severe problem that also warrants
analysis and intervention.
• Add the scores for each barrier and enter the total in the box on the upper
right of the form.
• Scores for individual barriers are more important than the total.
• Scores for a barrier of 2-4 indicate that further assessment and possible
treatment is warranted.
 The VB-MAPP: Transition
Assessment
• A common goal for many educators and parents of children with
special needs is to integrate the child into a mainstream setting
• There are many different levels of integration and the Transition
Assessment was designed to identify the skills that increase the
probability that a child will be successful in a less restrictive setting
• No single skill will be a good determiner of success, but a collective
body of skills can help educators and parents make decisions
• The VB-MAPP Transition Assessment provides a tool to help
determine if a child has the necessary prerequisite skills to learn in a
less restrictive classroom environment
• There are 18 skill areas on the Transition Assessment
 Categories of Transition Skills
• VB-MAPP Scores and Academic Independence: This category
includes scores from specific areas of the VB-MAPP Milestones and
Barriers assessments and the child’s independent work skills.
• Learning Patterns: What are the child’s skills and observed patterns of
behavior related to learning?
• Self-help, spontaneity, and self-direction: This category is a general
set of skills that children need to succeed in a classroom setting.
 VB-MAPP Scores and
Academic Independence
• Overall VB-MAPP Milestones score
• Overall VB-MAPP Barriers score
• VB-MAPP Barriers score on Negative Behaviors and Instructional
Control
• VB-MAPP Scores on classroom routines and group skills
• VB-MAPP scores on social behavior and social play
• Independent work on academic tasks
 Learning Patterns
• Generalization
• Variation of reinforcers
• Rate of skill acquisition
• Retention of new skills
• Natural Environment learning
• Transfer to new verbal operants
 Self-help, spontaneity, and self-direction
• Adaptability to Change
• Spontaneous Behaviors
• Independent Play Skills
• General self-help skills
• Toileting Skills
• Eating Skills
 Scoring the Transition Assessment
• Score each item on 5 point Lykert scale according to the discriptions
next to each score.
• Transfer the scores to the VB-MAPP Transition Scoring Form by
filling in the number of boxes corresponding to the score.
• Total the scores for all items and place it in the appropriate box in the
upper right corner of the form.
• Since some items are subjective, it may be advisable to have more
than one person score the assessment
 Interpreting the VB-MAPP Transition
Assessment
• Category 1 is most important
• Category 2 also important and may be the reason for similar (high or
low) scores in Category 1
• Category 3 is of less importance but not as critical. However, potty
training can be a determining factor
• Decision on placement is up to IEP team
• VB-MAPP Transitions Assessment provides information to the team
• Each child and each situation is different and the IEP team needs to
weigh the Transition Assessment and the needs of the child to create a
truly individualized IEP.
VB-MAPP Task Analysis and Skills Tracking
• Task Analysis and Skills Tracking is the last 35 pages of the Protocol and
contains approximately 900 skills (Similar to the ABLLS (Sundberg and
Partington, 1998)
• No task analysis for Vocal or Echoic areas
• Tasks are not necessarily prerequisites for the Milestones nor are they all the
possible skills one might need to include in a program
• It is not necessary to assess all skills in the Task Analysis
• Useful when you need a more “fine-grained” assessment of a child’s skills.
When a child is not progressing look at some of the smaller steps that may
have been missed.
• A good source of goals when the next Milestone is too big of a step.
Curriculum Placement and Writing IEP Goals
• The Milestones Assessment, Barriers Assessment and Transition
Assessment provide a comprehensive overview of the child.
• What is the child’s general level?
• Look for strengths that may benefit the child in other areas. A child
with little or no vocal, mand or tact skills, but has strong imitation
skills (overall Level 1) may benefit from sign language as an initial
alternative.
• Look for balance across the skill areas. This is a major advantage
of the VB-MAPP over other assessments (ABLLS-R). Helps maintain
a proper sequence in instruction.
 Level 1 Profile
• Child’s skills are that of a typical 0-18 month old
• Difference between child’s chronological age and VB-MAPP profile is
an important factor.
• Basic mand, tact, imitation, etc. skills should be taught. Just because
the child is 5 years old does not mean he should write his name.
• If delays are significant will likely be best served with a significant
amount of intensive 1:1 therapy
• If the child does not displaying vocal or echoic behavior an alternative
communication method may be appropriate.
 Alternative Communication Considerations
• Portability: Regardless of the type of devise, how does the child maintain access?
• Similarity to Spoken Language: Sign language and speech have a separate
topography for each word much different from picture/pointing systems.
• Tact is really match-to-sample with picture systems
• Intraverbal is more like LRFFC
• Community does not sign: This is a frequent objection to sign language.
However:
• A child/adult who needs an alternative communication system will either have supervision in
the community or will have a more universal communication skill such as writing
• Speech is always the long-term goal and sign has more research as facilitating speech
• While the community may not sign, they certainly will not serve as a model for pointing to
pictures. Not even the adults around a child will serve as models for pointing systems
• Give strong consideration to Sign Language as a first alternative to speech.
 Select Five Goals for LD at Level 1
• Get in groups
• Using the Master Scoring form and/or the Task Analysis write five
goals for LD.
• Give a rationale for your selection.
 Level 2 Profile
• Skills fall in the range of a typically developing 18 to 30 month old
child.
• Expanding the size and scope of mand, tact, lisener repertoires.
• Begin work on intraverbal and LRFFC skills
• More development of social skills and interactions with peers
• Children begin to benefit from small group (1:2-1:4) instruction,
especially as they get to the upper end of Level 2
• Watch for problems with generalization and inappropriate mand or tact
frames. (“I want ____ please” “It’s a ____.”)
 Select Five Goals for LD at Level 2
• Get in groups
• Using the Master Scoring form
• Take into consideration that LD has begun to ask for reinforcers after
almost every response and will begin to look away from the teacher
when edible reinforcers aren’t delivered when requested. What
barriers might this indicate? Have one or two of your goals address
this issue.
• Give a rationale for your selection.
 Some examples of Level 2 teaching
• Watch for the following:
• The use of stacks of cards. Why are there different stacks?
• The use of errorless learning. Ask a question, give the
answer, ask again, do something else, ask the original
question.
• Note the instructor’s response to “We have to hurry.”
 Level 3 Profile
• Skills fall in the range of a typically developing 30 to 48 month old child.
• Child has a solid foundation of language and social skills. Typical children
have hundreds of mands, tacts, intraverbals, listnener discriminations, etc.
• The child now has the ability to acquire new words with one trial and can
use a word learned in one operant in other operants.
• In designing a profile the professional needs to look at the entire
assessment, including the Barriers and Transition Assessments.
• 1:1 and 1:2 instruction is minimal and the child should benefit from being in
groups of peers for instruction, but more complex/difficult tasks may
require small groups and individual instruction.
 Level 3 intervention should focus on:
1. Expanding content of topics the child talks about with new mands, tacts, and
listener responses
2. Expanding sentence size by teaching adjectives, adverbs, propositions,
pronouns, etc
3. Develop mands for information with who, what, where, when questions.
4. Increasing intraverbal behavior to include discussions of thigs not present.
5. Learning to use verbal skills in social ways – mand to peers
6. Increase frequency and complexity of peer interactions
7. Increase the child’s ability to learn in a group. “Jim got that right! Allen, what
did Jim say?”
8. Movement to less restrictive school setting (see Transition Assessment)
9. Begin academic skills.
 Select Five More Goals for LD
• Get in groups
• Using the Master Scoring form
• Select a barrier(s) in the group and have one goal address that barrier
• Give a rationale for your selection.
 Wrap Up
• VB-MAPP provides an assessment an curriculum guide to assess and
guide the instruction for to the skills of a typical 48 month old child
• VB-MAPP can be used with older children who’s skills fall at a level
of less than 48 months or those suspected of having some language
deficits
• VB-MAPP is the only assessment for these skills that allows one to
easily see skill progress in relation to other skills.
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