The VB-MAPP (Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program) by Mark L. Sundberg is one of the most widely used instruments for assessing children with autism and language delays. It uses verbal behavior analysis to show what a child can already do, what hinders learning, and where to begin intervention.

How the VB-MAPP Is Organized

The instrument includes complementary components:

  • Milestones Assessment: 170 milestones distributed across three levels, corresponding approximately to ages 0-18 months, 18-30 months, and 30-48 months. Each level covers areas such as mand, tact, listener responding, imitation, echoic, play, and social skills, with higher levels including intraverbal and group skills.
  • Barriers Assessment: Identifies factors that may hinder learning, such as problem behaviors, prompt dependency, or difficulty with generalization.
  • Transition Assessment: Supports decisions regarding the most appropriate educational environment.

The manual also provides task analysis and goal suggestions for the intervention plan.

Practical Administration

  1. Observe and test directly whenever possible. Reports from caregivers are helpful, but scoring must be based on what the child does.
  2. Score milestone by milestone, following the manual criteria for each.
  3. Record the assessment date. The true value of the VB-MAPP appears in the comparison between assessments.
  4. Administer the barriers assessment concurrently. It explains why some milestones are not progressing.

The VB-MAPP is copyrighted, and its administration requires professional qualification.

How to Interpret Progress

Between assessments, look at three things:

  • New milestones per area: Which domains the child advanced in and which remained stagnant.
  • Distribution by level: Whether the child is consolidating a level or already scoring in the next one.
  • Barriers: In the barriers assessment, a high score is worse. A decrease in the barrier score is good news.

This interpretation informs the intervention plan: milestones not yet mastered become candidates for goals, and higher barriers indicate areas requiring specific strategies.

VB-MAPP in Proaba

In Proaba, the VB-MAPP Milestones and VB-MAPP Barriers are administered as digital checklists, organized by level and domain. The progress dashboard displays the milestone grid from 1 to 5 per domain, with one tab per level, and the Barriers map uses inverted colors, as higher scores are worse in that assessment. Assessments for the same child can be compared, and results can be exported for supervision and for the family.