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The VPA™: Assessment & Clinical Reasoning — participation guide

4 contact hours · 0.4 AOTA CEUs · Module 4 — follow along, take notes, and complete the reflection prompts.

Module 4

Administering the Mini VPA™

Follow along

What this module covers

  • Script discipline
  • What triggers a Full VPA™
  • Near point of convergence — the penlight probe
  • What to watch while they work

Key ideas

Capture these as you listen

  • Five probes, one per level, fifteen to twenty minutes. The Mini VPA™ routes; it does not describe.
  • Occlude with a card, never a palm. Measure NPC with three trials and record break and recovery separately, fatigue across trials is a finding.
  • Time the visual memory exposure with a timer. A drifting interval turns a memory task into a discrimination task.
  • The VMI copy task leaves the model visible; record process (grasp, stabilization, model rechecks) alongside product.
  • Say the script, then stop talking. One standard re-instruction maximum, and record that you gave it.

Notes

My notes for this module

Reference figures

Keep these for practice

Screenshot — Say/Do script card

Probe · Saccades (near, 40 cm)

Say

“Look at the star, then the circle, and keep going back and forth until I say stop. Move only your eyes.”

Do

Hold targets 20 cm apart at 40 cm, eye level. Time 30 s. Watch for head movement, undershoot, loss of place, and reported blur.

Score the level reached

L1Cannot localize both targets
L2Localizes with head movement / frequent loss
L3Accurate but effortful; slows within 30 s
L4Accurate and steady for the full trial
L5Accurate and steady while reading aloud (dual task)
Every probe is scripted: what you say, what you do, and the exact behavior that separates one level from the next. Scripting is what makes a re-probe eight weeks later comparable.

Photo — clinician observing eye movements

Occupational therapist seated across from a child at eye level, holding a near target while observing the child’s eyes

Eye level, off midline

Sit level with the student’s eyes and roughly 30° off midline so both eyes stay visible.

Target at eye level

Held at eye level, not above — an elevated target forces chin-up posture and false head substitution.

Score sheet within reach

Record each trial as it happens; retrospective scoring loses the qualitative signal.

You cannot score what you cannot see. Sit slightly off-midline and level with the student’s eyes so pursuits, undershoot, and head substitution are visible — not behind or above the shoulder.

Apply it

Case prompt

During Probe 2, the student never reports doubling, but you observe the left eye drift outward at 12 cm and return at 18 cm. What do you record, and what do you write in the report, and what do you deliberately not write?

Practice

Mini exercise

Without looking, name the five Mini probes in order and the level each one samples. Then name the one probe where you are most likely to talk too much.

Take it to work

Action step this week

Administer the Mini VPA™ to a colleague or family member this week while running the 20-item administration-fidelity checklist on yourself. Score honestly; the items you miss are the items you will miss with a student.