The VPA™: Assessment & Clinical Reasoning — participation guide

• Progression, basal, ceiling
• The five validity threats
• The 12 skills sit on the five levels
• Keeping a full battery clean

• Entry by age band: Level 1 at 5–7, Level 2 at 8–11, Level 3 at 12–16, Level 4 at 17+. Acuity, contrast, and convergence are fixed two-item checks instead — no ladder, no basal or ceiling.
• Items are scored 0–3; 2 or 3 passes. Pass, move up one level; fail, move down one level.
• Ceiling = fails at two consecutive levels; basal = passes at two consecutive levels. Achieved level = highest level passed. Never score an unreached ceiling as Level 5.
• A Level 1 Visual Access failure triggers referral immediately. A strained pass at entry deserves a step down to confirm the floor.
• Five validity threats: incomplete basal/ceiling, setup deviation, fatigue, attention/behavioral state, unfamiliar content. Suspect fatigue first in Functional Integration.

A 9-year-old (8–11 band) is referred because she cannot find the problem she is working on in a dense math worksheet. In figure-ground she scores 2 at Level 2, 2 at Level 3, then 1 at Level 4 just after a hallway interruption, and 1 when you return to Level 3 to recheck. What is the achieved level, what do you flag, and is the ceiling established?

Write the ceiling rule and the basal rule in one sentence each, then write the sentence you would put in a report when the ceiling was never reached.

Take one skill and run the ladder on paper for three imaginary students in different bands, writing down each item given, its score, and why the skill stopped. Check each against the rules above.