Expanded assessment for discrimination learning with mentally retarded persons: a practical strategy for research and...

Practical and reliable instruments to assess basic discriminations by severely and profoundly retarded persons are almost nonexistent. Research findings were reviewed on an assessment instrument, the AVC Discrimination Test, which can be administered in approximately 30 minutes to assess basic position, visual, and auditory discriminations. This test can be used with severely and profoundly mentally retarded persons and is reliable and predictive of client performance in classroom learning, language, and vocational tasks. The advantages of expanding current baseline assessment practices to include the AVC Discrimination Test in research and training programs for persons with mental retardation were discussed.