Developmental assessment
A developmental assessment compares a person's skills with the milestones typically reached at different ages, to identify delays and areas of strength.
Typical development follows a general sequence: children usually babble before they talk, crawl before they walk, and play alongside peers before they play cooperatively. A developmental assessment measures where a person's skills fall in that sequence across areas such as communication, motor skills, social skills, self-help and cognitive skills. Many are standardized and report results as age equivalents or comparisons with same-age peers.
These assessments help identify which areas are delayed and how far, which can support eligibility for services and help the team prioritize goals. They can also show the next skill in a typical sequence. Some combine developmental milestones with direct testing of specific skills, so the line between developmental and curriculum-based assessment is not always sharp.
Standardized developmental tests are usually administered and scored by qualified professionals following strict rules. RBTs participate as directed by the supervisor, for example by gathering materials, keeping the client engaged, recording observations, or supporting a caregiver interview. As with any assessment, they present items exactly as instructed and do not coach the client.
Example and non-example
| Example | An RBT records which items a 3-year-old completes during their supervisor's milestone-based assessment, and the results show that the child's expressive language is behind that of typical same-age peers. |
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| Non-example | Checking which skills in the clinic's own program sequence a client has already mastered, without reference to age, is a curriculum-based assessment. |
Don't confuse it with
| Curriculum-based assessment | Developmental assessment compares skills with age-based milestones; curriculum-based assessment compares them with the skills in a teaching curriculum. |
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| Social skills assessment | A developmental assessment covers many areas of development; a social skills assessment focuses on social behavior. |
Test yourself
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Question 1Which description best fits a developmental assessment?
Show answer
A: It compares the client's skills with typical milestones for each age. A developmental assessment looks at the client's skills against the typical sequence and ages of development, such as language, motor and social milestones, to show where development is ahead or behind.
- B: Testing each skill in a program's own curriculum describes a curriculum-based assessment.
- C: Testing what maintains problem behavior is a functional analysis.
- D: Ranking items by preference is a preference assessment.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D
Answer every question to see your score.
On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task B.2 Skill assessments in content area B, Behavior Assessment, which is 8 of the 75 scored questions.