Evaluation of an indirect assessment for identifying tasks for functional analysis

The team tested a short rating scale called the NRRS. Teachers and aides used it to guess which school tasks a child with autism hates most.

Later the same child went through a short demand test. The researchers compared the guesses to real escape behavior.

The checklist ratings matched the demand test. Adults agreed on which tasks were highly aversive.

Open-ended examples on the form were not reliable. Stick to the fixed categories when you use it.

Anonymous (2021) also checked if an autism tool gives true scores. Both papers show that quick rating steps can be trusted if you pick the right items.

Ortega (1978) gives math rules for single-case designs. Wiggins et al. (2020) used those same single-case rules to compare ratings with real data.

Lawer et al. (2009) taught people to graph single-case data. You can use their Excel steps to chart NRRS scores and demand test results side by side.

You can save time in the FA prep meeting. Give two staff the NRRS, circle the top two hated tasks, and drop them straight into the demand condition. Skip the open lines and you still get solid data.