ABILITIES Index for Children with Disabilities

 

ABILITIES acronym (9 domains, with 19 items):

A - audition (hearing): subscores for left and right ears

B – behavior and social skills: subscores for social skills and inappropriate behavior

I – intellectual functioning

L – limbs (use of hands, arms and legs): subscores for left hand, left arm, left leg, right hand, right arm, right leg

I – intentional communication: subscores for understanding others and communicating with others

T – tonicity (muscle tone): subscores for degree of tightness and for degree of looseness

I – integrity and physical health overall

E – eyes (vision): subscores for left and right eyes

S – structural status (shape, body form and structure)

 

Goals of the index (Table 1, page 402, Simeonsson, 1995):

(1) provides a holistic picture of abilities encompassing the major functional domains

(2) avoids categorization or labelling

(3) helps to individualize interventions by listing both abilities and disabilities

(4) reflects relative rather than absolute capabilities

(5) can be scored by a range of persons involved in the child's care

(6) evaluates traits that are relatively stable, rather than developmental skills

General Scoring	Points
normal	1
suspected or borderline	2
mild loss or difficulty	3
moderate loss or difficulty	4
severe loss or difficulty	5
profound loss or difficulty	6

 

Overall Health (I)	Points
general good health	1
suspected health problems	2
minor ongoing health problems	3
ongoing but medically controlled health problems	4
ongoing, poorly controlled health problems	5
extreme health problems, near total restrictions of activities	6

 

total score =

= SUM(points for all 19 items)

 

Interpretation:

• minimum score: 19

• maximum score: 114

• The higher the score the greater the level of disability.