Behavioral Assessment and the Planning and Evaluation of Interventions for Developmentally Disabled Children

ABSTRACT: Research in assessment and intervention with developmentally disabled children has led to important advances in recent years. In particular, this work has facilitated the development of behavioral assessment principles and methods that have important implications for the delivery of school psychological services to these children. After noting the advantages of behavioral assessment for developmentally disabled children, conceptual and practical issues important to the process of behavioral assessment will be identified and discussed. A framework for the behavioral assessment of the developmentally disabled will then be presented, with a special emphasis on ecological/systems assessment