Friday, April 23, 2010

What Behaviors Are Sensory Based?

Therapists are constantly answering this question - are behaviors in children sensory based? There are different ways of finding an answer to this question. One quick tool to start with is the Motivation Assessment Scale. This was developed by V. Mark Durrand PhD and Daniel B Crimmins PhD in 1986. It consists of 16 questions regarding behavior. After the questions are answered with a 0-6 scale of never to always, the test is scored. The question responses are then broken down into 4 categories - sensory, escape, attention and tangible. The category with the highest score is most likely related to the behavior.

View a copy of the Motivation Assessment Scale


More information on the Motivation Assessment Scale
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you used this, Margaret? Recommended by the OTs you work with? I'm going to look at it. Barbara

Stacey,momof 2 said...

Thanks for this... !

Nicole Grant said...

Great information! I am always looking for more accurate ways of assessing behaviour. Thank you.

Your Therapy Source Inc said...

Barbara,

Yes, I have used this tool and found it to be a good, quick and easy starting point. I have heard of other OT's using it but not sure of their opinion on it.

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