Selecting an Assessment Instrument for Use with Adults With a Profound Mental Handicap and Multiple Impairments

This paper considers the issues involved in assessment of adults with a profound mental handicap and multiple handicaps. Five criterion-referenced schedules are reviewed in terms of their theoretical basis, validity, reliability and age appropriateness. The findings show that none of the available assessments satisfactorily deal with all the relevant issues. Users of assessments must decide which are the most pertinent issues in each individual case. Selection of an assessment instrument is therefore likely to involve compromising the formal aspects of measurement or age appropriateness, as there are no assessment schedules available which encompass both these issues. Further research is required to either standardise existing age appropriate schedules or adapt the only reliable assessment available to make it relevant to the lives of adults.