B.2 Skill assessments
Skills assessments show what a client can already do and what they still need to learn. The supervisor chooses the assessment, interprets the results and writes the goals. The RBT helps by preparing, presenting items exactly as instructed, recording responses accurately, running planned role-plays and helping summarize the data.
What the outline says
Task B.2 in content area B, Behavior Assessment (8 of the 75 scored questions): "Participate in assessments of relevant skill strengths and deficits (e.g., curriculum-based, developmental, social skills)."
What a skills assessment is for
A skills assessment measures a client's current skills across areas such as communication, social interaction, play, self-care, academics and community living. It finds skill strengths (what the client already does well) and skill deficits (skills that are missing or below the level expected for the client).
The results serve three purposes. They help the supervisor choose teaching goals, they give a starting level against which progress can be compared, and, when the assessment is repeated later, they show which skills the client has gained. Strengths matter as much as deficits: they show where teaching can start and which existing skills can support new ones.
A skills assessment is different from a preference assessment, which finds items the client may work for (B.1), and from a functional assessment, which finds why a problem behavior happens (B.3).
Common types of skills assessments
- Curriculum-based assessment: tests the client on the skills in the curriculum that will be taught, so the results point straight to teaching targets.
- Developmental assessment: compares the client's skills with the milestones typically reached at different ages, in areas such as language, motor and social development.
- Social skills assessment: looks at how the client interacts with others, for example greeting, responding to peers, joining play, taking turns, sharing and responding to joint attention. Methods include direct observation in natural settings, structured role-plays and rating scales completed by teachers or caregivers.
- Daily living and community skills assessment: looks at skills such as dressing, preparing food, using a phone, shopping and paying.
Two other distinctions come up often. A norm-referenced assessment compares the client's score with the scores of a large sample of same-age peers. A criterion-referenced assessment compares the client's performance with a fixed standard of mastery for each skill. Methods can also be direct (watching the client perform the skill and recording it) or indirect (interviews, questionnaires and rating scales completed by people who know the client). Indirect reports are useful, but they rely on memory and impression, so supervisors usually combine them with direct observation.
Your role: before the assessment
The supervisor decides which assessment to use and which sections to give. To prepare:
- Read the instructions for the items you will present, and ask the supervisor about anything unclear. If you have not been trained on the assessment, ask for training before you give it.
- Gather the listed materials and data sheets, and set up the space to limit distractions.
- Build rapport so the client is comfortable with you and willing to take part. A short preference assessment may be run first so that participation and breaks can be reinforced.
- Do not practice test items with the client beforehand. Practicing teaches the test and makes the results inaccurate.
Your role: during the assessment
Standardized administration is the core rule. Present each item exactly as written, with the same wording, materials and arrangement each time. If the instructions say to respond neutrally to answers, do not praise correct answers or give tokens for them; feedback can teach the client during the test.
Avoid unplanned prompts. Pointing, glancing at the correct picture and mouthing the first sound are all prompts, and rewording an instruction changes the item. If you notice you gave one, score the response as prompted and tell the supervisor. Arrange materials as the procedure directs; if the correct picture is always in the same place, the client can be right by choosing the position.
Score by the assessment's rules, including rules about how quickly a response must occur. Record each response right after it happens. Write what the client actually did ("said 'ba' for ball"), not a conclusion ("knows ball"). If there was no opportunity to observe a skill, record that, rather than scoring it as not demonstrated.
During role-plays for social skills, follow the script so each response can be scored against the criteria. Use the operational definitions you are given; if a response does not meet the definition, it does not count, even if it looks close.
Watch the client's state. If they are ill, very tired or showing signs of withdrawing assent (crying, pushing materials away, leaving), pause, follow the plan, and tell the supervisor. Results taken when a client is distressed or unwell do not reflect their skills.
Your role: after the assessment
You may be asked to help with data summaries, such as totalling correct items in each section or calculating percentages. For example, 9 of 12 self-care items completed independently is 9 ÷ 12 × 100 = 75%. If a client scored 20% (8 of 40) in January and 50% (20 of 40) in June, the increase is 30 percentage points.
Report anything that could affect the results: illness, a new medication, poor sleep, noise or other distractions, or a difference between what a caregiver reports and what you observed. Do not fill in missing scores, change scores on your own or leave out items.
Interpreting the results, explaining them to the family and choosing goals are the supervisor's job. If a caregiver asks what the scores mean or asks for a new goal, tell them you will pass it to the supervisor, and do so promptly. Store protocols and data as the organization's privacy rules require.
Strengths, deficits and performance problems
Sometimes a client can do a skill but does not do it under typical conditions. For example, a child ties their shoes when a sticker is offered but not when asked at home. Doing the skill correctly shows that it is in the client's repertoire. The gap is in performing it, not in learning it, and the supervisor plans differently for this than for a skill the client has never learned. Your job is to record both observations clearly so the supervisor can see the difference.
In the same way, a skill seen only in one setting or with one person may not have generalized. That is why supervisors sometimes ask for skills to be checked across settings and people.
Examples and non-examples
| Example | Non-example |
|---|---|
| The RBT says "Touch the dog" exactly as written, waits, and records "no response within 5 seconds" when the client does not respond. | The RBT rewords the instruction as "Where's the doggy?" and points until the client touches the dog, then scores it correct. |
| The RBT records "pointed to 7 of 10 named pictures with no prompts." | The RBT records "seemed bored and did not really try." |
| The RBT tells the supervisor that the client says "car" during sessions but did not name the car picture during the assessment. | The RBT changes the score to correct because they have heard the client say "car" before. |
Common mistakes
- Helping without meaning to. Glances, gestures and repeated or reworded instructions all inflate the score. Keep your face and hands neutral and present items as written.
- Treating assessment as teaching. Praising correct answers when the instructions call for neutral responses, or starting to teach failed items before the supervisor adds goals, both go beyond the protocol.
- Recording opinions instead of behavior. Write what the client said or did, with counts where possible.
- Filling gaps. Missing or doubtful scores go to the supervisor; they are not guessed.
- Answering the family's questions about results. Pass them to the supervisor.
How it's tested
Expect short scenarios in which you must choose what an RBT should do during or after an assessment: present items as written, avoid extra prompts, score by the rules, record objectively, report conditions that affect results and leave interpretation and goal-setting to the supervisor. Also expect definitions: curriculum-based, developmental, social skills, norm-referenced versus criterion-referenced, and direct versus indirect methods. Watch for options in which the RBT decides goals, changes scores or interprets results; these go beyond the RBT's role.
Practice questions for task B.2
10 of our 55 questions on this task. The rest are in the Behavior Assessment practice sets and the mock exams.
-
Question 1What is the main purpose of a skills assessment in ABA services?
Show answer
D: To find which skills the client has and which still need to be taught. A skills assessment identifies a client's skill strengths and deficits. The supervisor uses the results to choose teaching goals and to track progress over time.
- A: Finding why a behavior happens is the purpose of a functional assessment, not a skills assessment.
- B: Finding preferred items is the purpose of a preference assessment.
- C: Diagnosis is made by qualified professionals with diagnostic tools; ABA skills assessments are used to plan teaching.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D
-
Question 2Which description best fits a curriculum-based assessment?
Show answer
C: It tests the client on the skills listed in the curriculum to be taught. A curriculum-based assessment tests the client on the skills listed in a teaching curriculum, so the results point directly to which skills in that curriculum to teach next.
- A: Comparing a score with same-age peers describes a norm-referenced assessment.
- B: Rating how often problem behavior occurs in situations is an indirect functional assessment method.
- D: Recording what happens before and after behavior describes ABC data collection, a descriptive functional assessment.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D
-
Question 3During a skills assessment, the written instruction for an item is "Touch the dog." The client does not respond. The RBT thinks the client might respond to "Where's the doggy?" What should the RBT do?
Show answer
B: Give the instruction as written and score by the assessment's rules. Assessment items must be presented exactly as written so that the results reflect the client's skills under the conditions the assessment describes. Changing the wording or helping makes the score inaccurate.
- A: Rewording until the client succeeds changes the item, so the score no longer means what the assessment intends.
- C: Pointing is a prompt; a prompted response cannot be scored as independent.
- D: Scores must reflect what the client did, not what the RBT believes the client knows.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D
-
Question 4An RBT arrives to continue a skills assessment at a client's home. The client is coughing, very sleepy and keeps putting their head on the table. What should the RBT do?
Show answer
A: Note the client's condition and tell the supervisor, because it may affect the results. Illness and fatigue can lower a client's performance. The RBT should document the condition and report it promptly so the supervisor can decide whether to continue and how to interpret the scores.
- B: Scores taken while the client is ill, with no note, may be read as true skill deficits.
- C: Repeating items until the answer is correct changes the assessment and inflates the scores.
- D: Scoring items the client did not perform as correct falsifies the data.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D · Task E.3
-
Question 5After a skills assessment, a caregiver tells the RBT that the child failed the toileting items and asks the RBT to add toilet training to the child's goals. What should the RBT do?
Show answer
D: Tell the caregiver the supervisor will get the request, and pass it on. The supervisor selects and writes goals with the family. The RBT's role is to pass caregiver requests and concerns to the supervisor in a timely way.
- A: RBTs do not write or change goals in a client's plan; that is the supervisor's job.
- B: Starting a new program without the supervisor goes beyond the RBT's role, even if the supervisor is told later.
- C: Toileting is a common target in ABA services, so this statement is false.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D · RBT Ethics Code 2.06 · Task E.1
-
Question 6Why do skills assessments record a client's strengths as well as their deficits?
Show answer
B: Strengths show what the client can already do, which teaching can build on. Knowing what a client already does well tells the team where to start teaching and which existing skills can support new ones. Deficits show what still needs to be taught.
- A: Skills the client already has usually do not need to be taught; goals focus on deficits.
- C: What maintains problem behavior is found through functional assessment, not skill strengths.
- D: Reinforcers are identified through preference and reinforcer assessments.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D
-
Question 7A report shared with the treatment team states that a 4-year-old's communication score is well below the average for children of the same age. Which type of assessment produces this kind of comparison?
Show answer
A: A norm-referenced assessment. Norm-referenced assessments compare a person's score with scores from a large sample of people of the same age, so results are reported as above, at or below the average for that age.
- B: A criterion-referenced assessment compares performance with a set mastery standard, not with peers' scores.
- C: A functional analysis tests what maintains problem behavior; it does not compare scores with peers.
- D: A paired-stimulus preference assessment ranks preferred items.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D
-
Question 8A supervisor asks a caregiver to fill out a questionnaire about which dressing and grooming skills their teenager does without help at home. What kind of skill assessment method is this?
Show answer
C: An indirect assessment. Questionnaires, interviews and rating scales collect information from people who know the client instead of observing the client directly. These are indirect methods.
- A: Direct observation means watching the client perform the skill and recording it.
- B: A functional analysis tests the function of problem behavior by arranging conditions.
- D: Permanent product recording measures a lasting outcome of behavior, such as completed worksheets.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D
-
Question 9A supervisor wants to know whether an adult client can order food at a café. Which method gives the most direct information?
Show answer
D: Watching the client order at a café and recording each step. Direct observation of the client performing the skill in the real setting shows exactly which steps they can complete and which need teaching.
- A: A self-report is indirect and may not match what the client actually does.
- B: Ratings from memory are indirect and can be inaccurate.
- C: Old scores may not reflect the client's current skills.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D
-
Question 10An RBT is scheduled to help with a curriculum-based assessment tomorrow. What is an appropriate way to prepare?
Show answer
B: Review the assessment instructions and gather the materials. Preparing for an assessment means knowing the procedures and having the required materials ready, so the assessment runs as designed.
- A: Practicing the items beforehand teaches the test and makes the results inaccurate.
- C: Which sections to give is the supervisor's decision, not the RBT's.
- D: Telling the client the answers makes the results meaningless.
Task B.2 · 40-hour curriculum section D
Answer every question to see your score.
Key terms
| Curriculum-based assessment | A curriculum-based assessment measures a learner's current skills directly against the skills in a teaching curriculum, to show what they can already do and what to teach next. |
|---|---|
| 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. |
| Social skills assessment | A social skills assessment identifies which social behaviors a person performs well and which need teaching, such as greeting, turn-taking, sharing and conversation. |
| Skill deficit | A skill deficit exists when a person cannot perform a skill because they have not learned it, so the skill must be taught. |
| Indirect assessment | Indirect assessment gathers information about a problem behavior from people who know the client, through interviews, questionnaires or rating scales, without directly observing it. |
| Baseline | Baseline is a condition in which the target behavior is measured repeatedly before the intervention is introduced, giving a standard to compare against. |
| Operational definition | An operational definition describes a target behavior in observable, measurable terms so that different observers can agree on when it does and does not occur. |
| Interobserver agreement | Interobserver agreement (IOA) is the degree to which two or more independent observers report the same values after measuring the same events. |
| Prompt | A supplementary stimulus added before or during a response to make the correct response more likely while a skill is being learned, meant to be faded later. |
| Generalization | When a learned behavior occurs in settings, with people or materials, or in forms that were not directly part of training. |
| Percentage | A percentage is a ratio expressed as parts per 100: the number of occurrences divided by the total, multiplied by 100. |
| Rate | Rate is the number of times a behavior occurs divided by the length of the observation, such as responses per minute or per hour. |
| Assent | A client's own willingness to participate, shown through words or behavior, which is separate from the legal consent given by a guardian or the client. |
| Confidentiality | The obligation to protect information about clients and others from being shared except with authorized people, for valid reasons, as allowed by law, the BACB and the employer. |
| Reinforcement | Reinforcement occurs when a consequence that follows a behavior makes that behavior more likely to occur again in the future under similar conditions. |
| Pairing | Presenting a neutral stimulus together with, or just before, an established reinforcer so that the neutral stimulus comes to function as a conditioned reinforcer. |
| Task analysis | Breaking a complex skill into a sequence of smaller, teachable steps, listed in order; the written list is also called a task analysis. |
| Mand | A verbal operant in which a person asks for what they want or need; it is controlled by a motivating operation and reinforced by receiving the specific thing requested. |
| Verbal operants | Categories of verbal behavior defined by what controls them and what reinforces them, not by the words used; the elementary ones include the mand, tact, echoic and intraverbal. |
| Stimulus control | When a behavior reliably occurs (or occurs differently) in the presence of a particular antecedent stimulus because of a history of reinforcement in its presence. |
| Preference assessment | A preference assessment is a structured way of identifying which items or activities a person prefers, to find stimuli likely to work as reinforcers. |
| Latency | Latency is the time between the onset of a stimulus, such as an instruction, and the start of the response that follows it. |