TUNE-K: Functional Skills & Learner Repertoires Probe Manual: A School-Based Assessment for K-2 Verbal, Relational, Social, & Adaptive Participation Skills

TUNE-K is a practical, school-based assessment tool created by a BCBA for BCBAs, behavior specialists, and school teams working with kindergarten through second grade students.The TUNE-K Functional Skills & Learner Repertoires Probe Manual focuses on the skills that drive classroom success: how a student listens, communicates, relates to others, and copes with everyday demands like waiting, transitions, and changes in plans. It is a functional decision-making tool, not a diagnostic test.What TUNE-K MeasuresTUNE-K samples five domains across 80 brief, scripted items:Listener (LIS): following directions, feature/function/class, attributes and spatial terms, simple conditional discriminations.Speaker (SPK): mands (requests), tacts (labels), early intraverbals, communication repair.Relational (REL): same/different, category membership, more/less/most/least, basic opposites and deictic relations (I/you, mine/yours, here/there).Social Connection (SOC): joint attention, initiation, reciprocity/turn-taking, simple social inference and repair.Adaptive Participation (ADP): waiting, “not right now” and denial, transitions, accepting correction, and basic rule shifts.These domains align with early academic and SEL expectations while staying firmly within BCBA scope of practice.Inside the ManualWritten in a clear scholar–practitioner style, this manual includes:A concise conceptual overview linking TUNE-K to verbal behavior, relational learning, and MTSS/PBIS.Step-by-step administration guidelines for school-based use.Fully scripted item descriptions with required materials, layout, examiner scripts, and expected responses.A consistent scoring system (0–2 performance plus prompt, latency, and regulation codes) and guidance for interpreting profiles across domains.A chapter on linking assessment to intervention, including how to move from TUNE-K results to concrete IEP, BIP, social skills, and tolerance-building targets.Discussion of ethical use and limitations, emphasizing that TUNE-K is non-normed, non-diagnostic, and intended as a functional support tool.Reproducible Tools IncludedThe appendix provides plug-and-play resources:Master Item Scoring Form for all 80 items.Summary Profile Sheet for domain scores, strengths, priority needs, and regulation/tolerance patterns.Progress Monitoring Sheet for multiple administrations (e.g., Fall/Winter/Spring).Administration Fidelity Checklist to support training and consistent implementation.A brief standards & framework alignment overview connecting TUNE-K to early academic and SEL skills.Teacher and caregiver-friendly templates and a concise glossary translating ABA terminology into school-friendly language.If you are a BCBA or school-based clinician who needs more than behavior tallies and generic “social skills” checklists, TUNE-K offers a structured, data-driven way to see which functional repertoires are in place, which are fragile, and where to focus your next steps in supporting K–2 learners. Read more