Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 October 2015
This paper reports a comparison between United States norms and the Australian Checknorms of the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales, and the implications for the diagnosis of intellectual disability. One hundred and twenty-five children with developmental disabilities aged between 4 and 10 years received two separate diagnoses relating to intellectual disability. One was based on their level of intellectual functioning plus their Adaptive Behaviour Composite score calculated using the United States norms of the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales. A second diagnosis was based on their level of intellectual functioning and an adjusted Adaptive Behaviour Composite score using the Australian Checknorms. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between scores and that this difference was clinically meaningful in 10.4% of the subjects. For a small and statistically non-significant number of children (five) the difference between scores led to a change in diagnosis from intellectually disabled to not intellectually disabled. Implications for the assessment of children with developmental disabilities are discussed.