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Purpose: Assessment battery designed to cover a wide range of populations from intellectually challenged, to special needs students with specific learning disabilities. The PVRB assesses the ability to function in vocational, educational, sheltered or independent-living settings.

Design: Hands-on work sample hardware divided into four subtests: Developmental Assessment, Workshop Evaluation, Interpersonal/Social Skills and Money Handling Skills. Each of the subtests requires little or no reliance on language or reading skills. An evaluee can respond by pointing, gesturing, talking, or using sign language.

Special Features: Subtests can be administered independently from one another and in any order. Subtests can also be purchased individually. PVRB can be used in combination with other work samples or different approaches to assessment. The PVRB has been designed for simplicity and ease of administration. Formal training is recommended but not required.

Information Collected: The PVRB identifies barriers to training, education, competitive employment, and independent living. Norm groups to which the evaluee’s performance is compared are:

• Sheltered Living
• Independent Living
• Exceptional Children

In addition, Methods-Time Measurement (MTM) standards have been developed for all appropriate subtests.

Subtest One – Developmental Assessment: Developmental Assessment documents the physical and perceptual abilities of the evaluee. The subtest is divided into four parts.

Part A, Patterning/Color Discrimination/Manipulation, determines the method of administration that the evaluator will use for the rest of the battery. It provides a variety of instructions to determine the evaluee’s level of understanding. Part A answers such questions as: Can the evaluee sort objects by color? Is the evaluee able to follow simple instructions? Can the evaluee count to five?

Part B, Manual Coordination, assesses hand steadiness, eye-hand coordination, and the ability to work under time constraints. The evaluee traces a 1/4″ maze path with a metal stylus. When the evaluee goes off the path, errors are recorded automatically by a built-in counter.

Part C, Range of Motion/Dynamic Strength/Walking, assesses the evaluee’s ability to meet minimum vocational criteria or perform basic activities of daily living that require lifting, pushing, pressing, movement, and mobility. Part C answers such questions as: Can the evaluee walk within confined space? How much weight can the evaluee lift? Through what range can the evaluee move his or her arms from a standing or sitting position?

Part D, Matching/Vocational Knowledge/Measurement, allows the evaluee to make practical measurements and estimate length, size, and volume. Additional exercises determine the evaluee’s familiarity with basic tools, tool function, and items common to everyday living.

Subtest Two – Workshop Evaluation: This subtest is a workshop-like task in which three or four evaluees participate in a simulated assembly process. Three of the four work stations have a three-step assembly process. The fourth work station is for the inspector who sorts finished assemblies into pass or reject bins. Workshop Evaluation determines where an evaluee might initially be placed in a workshop or like setting. It allows the observation of interpersonal skills in a workshop setting. Each worker is dependent on the others for ultimate outcome and productivity. An evaluator observes patience, problem solving skills, adjustment to varying work paces, and other behavioral traits.

Subtest Three – Interpersonal/Social Skills: Typically, a person’s social skill is determined in an interview setting where a verbally adept person can often hide actual lack of social skill. This subtest assesses social and interpersonal skills in a situation other than an interview. The subtest has four parts: Practical Skills, Socialization Skills, Aggravating Behaviors, and Work-Related Skills. Inter- personal/Social Skills formalizes the method of observing the evaluee. Behaviors are observed and assigned a point value on a Critical Barriers Inventory. The subtest determines the evaluee’s knowledge of appropriate social judgments and identifies social and practical behaviors which could present barriers to employment or independent living.

Subtest Four – Money Handling Skills: This subtest uses combinations of real money, printed money, and storybooks to assess knowledge of money concepts. The first series of exercises answers such questions as: Can the evaluee identify a penny, nickel, etc.? Can the evaluee count by fives? Does the evaluee know that two dimes and one penny are equal to twenty-one cents? The next series of exercises uses a printed flip chart to answer such questions as: Does the evaluee know that when an item costs ten cents and is paid for with twenty-five cents, that fifteen cents should be received in change? The last series of exercises uses a storybook approach to more complicated and abstract money concepts, and addresses questions such as: Does the evaluee understand the relationship between work and money? Although the exercises become increasingly difficult, each has several levels designed to accommodate lower functioning evaluees.

Components: Subtest 1, Developmental Assessment – Part A consists of 5″ x 7 1/2″ assembly boards, 48 assembly plugs of various colors, an assembly pattern book and three sorting trays. Part B is a 6″ x 4″ x 24″ box with a copper maze board attached to the lid. Part C includes a bathroom scale with a set of lifting apparatus, two hexagon weights, two balance blocks, a 36″ x 66″ work range chart and a 72″ x 96″ range of motion wall chart with mounting hardware. Part D is a pictorial task book. Subtest 1 includes a manual and score sheets.

Subtest 2, Workshop Evaluation, consists of two 23 1/2″ x 23 1/2″ x 3″ boxes which are placed side by side during administration. Included are 125 each of 9 different assembly parts, 9 assembly trays, an assembly diagram, a scoring key, an instruction manual and 100 score sheets.

Subtest 3, Interpersonal/Social Skills, consists of a pad of 100 Critical Barriers Inventory sheets and an instruction manual.

Subtest 4, Money Handling Skills, consists of four booklets and a 10″ x 17″ x 2 1/2 >” box with real coins which can be moved, but not removed. Subtest 4 also includes 100 score sheets and an instruction manual.

In addition, there is an overall manual, a norm manual, and a pad of 100 Exit Profile sheets.

Shipping Size and Weight: 3 Boxes – 28″ x 28″ x 12″ @ 52lbs; 28″ x 28″ x 12″ @ 56lbs; 18″ x 12″ x 12″ @ 13lbs