Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program

The Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) is an assessment and skills-tracking system to assess the language, learning and social skills of children with autism or other developmental disabilities. A strong focus of the VB-MAPP is language and social interaction, which are the predominant areas of weakness in children with autism.

The VB-MAPP is based on the principles and procedures of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), B.F. Skinner's behavioral analysis of language, verbal behavior and establishment of developmental milestones.

The VB-MAPP was developed by Mark Sundberg, Ph.D., BCBA-D and is a continuation of the author's 30+ year research in language assessment and intervention as it applies to individuals with autism. A contributing author to the VB-MAPP is Barbara Esch, Ph.D, CCC-SLP, BCBA-D, a speech and language pathologist who includes an assessment of speech sounds with a guide for developmental progression called the Early Echoic Skills Assessment (EESA.)

The VB-MAPP is most commonly used to assess individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities, but can also be used for children who demonstrated delays in language development. It is intended to be used by individuals who have training in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and is primarily used by behavior analysts, speech-language pathologists, school psychologists and special educators to assess strengths and weaknesses in skills and behaviors that might impede language and social development. The results of assessment help to prioritize intervention needs, provide feedback to parents and other professionals, guide curriculum planning and track skill acquisition.

The VB-MAPP set contains an individual scoring protocol and a users guide. The main components of the VB-MAPP are:

The Milestones Assessment is broken down into three levels:

At Level 1, the child is tested for Mand, Tact, Listener Responding, Visual Perceptual Skills and Matching-to-Sample, Independent Play, Social Behaviour and Social Play, Motor Imitation, Echoic, Spontaneous Vocal Behaviour.

Level 2 adds Listener Responding by Function Feature and Class, Intraverbal, Classroom Routines and Group Skills, Linguistic Structure.

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