Adaptive Behavior Assessment: A Neurodiversity Affirming Super-Tool?

Adaptive behavior assessments are often included in evaluations for neurodevelopmental conditions like autism, intellectual disability, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These assessments yield vital information about how a condition may be affecting someone’s social skills or daily functioning. But adaptive behavior assessments can also be an important tool in neurodiversity affirming practice. That’s because they highlight a person’s strengths, the skills that matter most to them, and the support they need to thrive in different settings. 

Adaptive behavior assessments supply data in areas like these:  

• Interests that spark passion, connection, and curiosity 
• Frustrations and challenges at home, school, or work 
• Coping skills and strategies that help or hinder 
• Communication abilities and patterns 
• Mismatches between people and their surroundings 
• Routines that make it easier to function every day 
• Emotions and skills for managing them 
• Events that cause strong emotional or sensory reactions 
• Relationships and social experiences 

That kind of information is important if your aim is to co-create a support plan based on a neurodiversity affirming evaluation. It’s the kind of data researchers say is vital to capturing “the inner experience of autism” (Ratto et al., 2023).   

What Is Adaptive Behavior? 

Adaptive behaviors are the skills and abilities we need to function fully in each area of our daily lives. Typically, they are grouped into three categories: conceptual, social, and practical.  

The conceptual domain includes communication, early academic skills, self-direction, and basic health and safety knowledge. The social domain encompasses skills that allow us to adapt the way we communicate to different people or settings, and to engage in recreational activities. And the practical domain focuses on the skills we need to take care of ourselves, to work, and to manage our finances and living environments. 

See the domains visualized in our infographic. 

Here are a few examples of adaptive behaviors in each category.  

Context Is Important 

Skills like naming emotions, showing sympathy for and greeting people, and even choosing favorite foods may appear simple. For autistic kids, these skills may not be their target and they may not look like the skills of their peers.  

Some adaptive skills are also dependent on class or culture. Using a washer and dryer, for example, may be hard to impossible in certain living situations. Similarly, the age at which someone might be expected to use public transportation in one community may differ from another (Boluarte Carbajal et al, 2024). The goal is not neurotypicality or uniformity. With adaptive behavior, the goal is independence and interdependence in a person's community. 

Why It Matters in Evaluations  

It’s important to understand someone’s adaptive functioning because our ability to adapt in various environments is the key to our well-being—even more so than whether we are neurodivergent or neurotypical. 

In a neurodiversity affirming evaluation, adaptive behavior assessment is a tool for respectful, active listening. It allows you to hear from neurodivergent individuals, families, teachers, and healthcare providers exactly what practical needs exist—what is going well, and what needs more support—across every area of someone’s life. Listening is at the heart of a neurodiversity affirming model of care (Dwyer, 2022).  

Identifying Strengths 

Diagnostic assessments measure characteristics that are often described as deficits—ways that someone differs from a “norm.”  In a neurodiversity affirming evaluation, the practitioner identifies a person’s strengths as well as areas of their life where more support may be needed.  

An adaptive behavior assessment can help you answer questions like these: 

• What have educators noticed about how someone learns or interacts with other students? 
• What strengths enable someone to cope, learn, and thrive? 
• What activities, topics, and environments bring a sense of achievement, independence, or joy? 
• What adaptations might build on someone’s communication abilities? 
• What strengths in the family, culture, and community can support and empower the individual? 

Identifying and supporting strengths is a key element of neurodiversity affirming care. 

Identifying Environmental Support Needs 

In a conventional medical model, the focus of assessment and intervention is often on encouraging the individual to adapt to neurotypical environments—to learn neurotypical ways of behaving and communicating. For some professionals, this seems like a practical, problem-solving approach. For others, this approach may feel as though you’re asking neurodivergent people to be less authentic (Dwyer et al., 2025).  

Increasingly, practitioners are considering a social model of disability, because it may align more closely with neurodiversity affirming practice. In a social model, practitioners look for ways that environments can be changed to better meet the needs of a neurodivergent person, instead of placing the onus for change solely on the individual.  

Practitioners might use adaptive behavior measures and other methods to ask questions like these: 

• Could the sensory characteristics of a classroom, home, or work environment be modified so the neurodivergent person can work and learn comfortably?
• Can education or work processes be modified so they don’t conflict with neurodivergent needs?
• Can educators, peers, and families be educated so they understand and accept neurodivergent needs and ways of being?
• Can communication devices make it easier for neurodivergent people to communicate their needs and wishes? 

Identifying Priorities

One of the key principles of neurodiversity affirming care is that goals and interventions should be developed with input from the neurodivergent individual. Researchers in one autism study explained it this way: “Autistic people should be given the opportunity to make informed choices about what their interventions are, what they do, and what they target” (Lerner et al., 2023).  

Adaptive behavior assessments can be the starting point of a conversation about which skills will be most meaningful to the individual. Often, the important skills are those that allow a person to participate in the activities and occupations that bring them the most satisfaction (Morrison et al., 2025).  

In a neurodiversity affirming evaluation, goals and interventions focus on empowerment and authenticity, rather than on compliance with neurotypical standards. Goals and interventions should aim to promote greater autonomy, self-advocacy, and interdependence. One group of autism researchers said, “Most individuals aim to live fulfilling lives enmeshed in a supportive environment with others on whom they can rely for support and vice versa; autistic individuals are no different. Indeed, what is social success, if not the ability to offer reciprocal benefit and support to one’s family and community? Interdependence exemplifies such success” (Lerner et al., 2023). 

Adaptive behavior assessments may spark questions like these:  

• What occupations or activities could promote greater well-being? 
• What barriers are preventing someone from participating in preferred activities and occupations? 
• What adaptive skills are top priorities for the individual and the family? 
• What supports and accommodations could improve someone’s ability to connect with others in the community?
• What skills and adaptations could reduce the need for masking and lower the chances of burnout? 

Key Messages 

Adaptive behavior assessments can be a useful component in a neurodiversity affirming evaluation. They can help you identify strengths, set meaningful goals and priorities, remove barriers, and provide support that enables neurodivergent people to pursue more of the occupations and skills that bring them joy and interdependence. If you’re including an adaptive behavior measure in a comprehensive evaluation, it’s a good idea to focus on listening, and to choose assessments that suit the goals and traits of those in your care.  

Learn more about adaptive behavior assessment.