Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS) is an educational tool used frequently with applied behavior analysis (ABA) to measure the basic linguistic and functional skills of an individual with developmental delays or disabilities.

The ABLLS are split into 25 different functional areas, each corresponding to a letter in the alphabet. The assessments cover four key areas:

Basic Learner Skills Assessment 
The largest portion of the test, covers 15 categories from cooperation and reinforcer effectiveness to imitation and social interaction. The 381 assessment tasks range from requesting items, making sounds, or finding matching items to telling stories, answering novel questions and working only for the accomplishment of task completion.

Academic Skills Assessment
Tests how your child is doing in basic academic skills in math, reading, writing, and spelling; 63 assessment tasks.

Self-Help Skills Assessment
Dressing skills, eating skills, grooming, and toileting skills; 42 assessment tasks.

Motor Skills Assessment 
Assess both fine and gross motor skills; 58 assessment tasks.

Advantages

• Can be conducted by most people with a minimal understanding of ABA
• Addresses basic language, academic, self-help, classroom, and gross and fine motor skill sets

Disadvantages

• Skill lists are not exhaustive
• Skills are mostly in order of childhood development, but every child learns differently
• No age normalization is provided
• Not a standardized assessment (it is still subjective to the assessor's interpretation or ability to elicit behaviors)

Right now our Behavioural Consultant is assessing Bryce using ABLLS. They are on B. Visual Performance, the ability to interpret things visually. This includes seeing if he can put a jigsaw puzzle together with X number amount of pieces, sorting objects by functions (food, vehicles, clothing, etc), and delayed replication of a sequence. He’s mastered most of the Visual Performance assessments and Daniel and I are very proud of him.

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya