The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales: supplementary norms for individuals with autism.
Compare autistic kids with autistic norms, not typical ones, and know that cognitive level can hide the classic social-gap profile.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Irvin et al. (1998) built extra tables for the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. The tables show how kids with autism score at different ages and language levels.
They used a large sample so you can compare one child’s scores with others who have autism, not just with typical kids.
What they found
Younger and verbal children with autism earned higher scores. Socialization stayed the weakest area. Daily Living Skills stayed the strongest area, but only when you look at age-equivalent scores.
Standard scores did not show the same clear pattern.
How this fits with other research
Webb et al. (1999) followed 210 autistic kids for one year and saw scores rise with age, backing the age link S et al. found.
Ferrari et al. (1991) showed autistic kids lag far behind matched Down syndrome peers in social skills, setting up the social-gap pattern the norms now quantify.
Fenton et al. (2003) seems to disagree: when kids with autism and kids with other delays are matched on cognitive level, their Vineland profiles look the same. The difference is IQ. S et al. mixed all ability levels, so the autism-only pattern shows up. Gemma et al. held ability constant, so it washed out.
Lancioni et al. (2000) turned the social-gap idea into a handy ratio: divide the child’s actual social score by the score expected for their age. A big drop flags possible autism.
Why it matters
Use the autism norms when you explain Vineland results to parents. A low social score looks less scary when you compare it with other autistic kids, not with typical ones. If you work with children who have both autism and moderate delay, remember the profile can blur; watch the child, not just the test.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Print the autism norm tables and circle the row that matches the child’s age and verbal level before you share results.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales Special Population norms are presented for four groups of individuals with autism: (a) mute children under 10 years of age; (b) children with at least some verbal skills under 10 years of age; (c) mute individuals who are 10 years of age or older; and (d) individuals with at least some verbal skills who are 10 years of age or older. The sample included 684 autistic individuals ascertained from cases referred for the DSM-IV autism/PDD field trial collaborative study and five university sites with expertise in autism. Young children had higher standard scores than older individuals across all Vineland domains. In the Communication domain, younger verbal children were least impaired, older mute individuals most impaired, and younger mute and older verbal individuals in the midrange. Verbal individuals achieved higher scores in Daily Living Skills than mute individuals. The expected profile of a relative weakness in Socialization and relative strength in Daily Living Skills was obtained with age-equivalent but not standard scores. Results high-light the importance of employing Vineland special population norms as well as national norms when evaluating individuals with autism.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1998 · doi:10.1023/a:1026056518470