From Assessment to Impact: Achieving ABA Treatment Goals

So how do you make finding and implementing assessments more accessible and less daunting? How can you spend less time managing the assessment process and more time dedicated to interventions and direct care? Here’s a few simple tips:

How to Improve the Assessments Selection Process

1. Know and understand funder requirements for initial authorization and reauthorization.

2. Keep accurate records of authorization expiration dates and submission contact information. Use technology like Rethink or spreadsheets to track authorization data.

3. Select assessments that provide insights into a child’s strengths and deficits related to autism’s core deficits.

4. Familiarize yourself with assessment literature, seek mentorship from other BCBAs, and attend webinars and CE events to learn about unfamiliar assessments.

5. When available, use electronic assessments and questionnaires for completion and scoring.

“Going Digital”

Digital assessment platforms are more and more prevalent and can be a user-friendly, time-saving solution for both families and ABA professionals. Here are some of the benefits:

• They reduce printing paper and the need to track, carry, and store cumbersome paper files.
• They make completing the assessment easier for families and caregivers, often allowing for completion on the go.
• Many platforms automatically compile results and score the assessment, saving you considerable time and improving accuracy.
• When assessments are generated automatically, it saves time that can be spent directly with clients and on creating individualized treatment plans instead.
• You simplify the storage of critical data often requested by payors (e.g., data used for current and future authorization periods).

Moving from Assessments to Action

Ultimately, assessments are valuable tools that allow you to continuously track and communicate progress, identify deficit areas, and prioritize goals and interventions.

How you select them is a matter of professional judgment and child needs. It can be helpful to know, though, that digital assessments are an increasingly trusted and available resource – one that can streamline documentation, support compliance, and facilitate seamless communication between families, clinicians, and payors.

A Quick Guide to Assessment Standards and Types

Types of Assessment Standardization

Most assessments fall into two categories: Norm-referenced assessments compare a child’s performance to a norm group, a representative sample of children of the same age or developmental stage. These are useful for identifying general developmental delays, but using norms means that they don’t always reflect individual variations or learning profiles.

Criterion-referenced and curriculum-based assessments measure a child’s performance against a predefined set of criteria for specific skills or curriculum instead of comparing them to other children. These are useful for assessing a child’s abilities and targeting skills that need development, but they don’t show how a child compares to peers.

Common Assessments

As we’ve discussed, there are many assessments with various methodologies used either for specific age groups or specific behaviors. Here’s a list of several frequently used, evidence-based assessments for your reference.

The Virtual IPM Measure Set

In addition, the Autism Analytica Virtual IPM (Identify, Predict, Monitor) Measure Set, available via RethinkBH, includes a comprehensive battery of 10 standardized, norm-referenced assessments. These measures cover a range of neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and are standardized, clinically-validated, and published in peer-reviewed journals, meeting most payors’ policies for authorization.

For More Insights

Watch as Dr. Donna Murray, PhD, CCC-SLP, discusses the impact of stronger outcome measures in standardizing care for individuals with autism spectrum disorder in the full replay of our virtual Fireside Chat with Autism Analytica.