This module provides specific instructions and information on administering the Activity-based Balance Level (ABLE) Scale.
The purpose of the ABLE Scale is to assess changes in balance across the full spectrum of recovery in the spinal cord injury population. Other scales are available, such as the Tinetti Falls Efficacy Scale, the Modified Functional Reach Test, and the Berg Balance Scale, but none of them can really assess changes across the full spectrum.
So if you are working with an individual that has an incomplete spinal cord injury they might start off only being able to do sitting balance items, but as they progress they would have a ceiling effect with those items and pretty much max out the scale. Then you would have to switch to another scale. With the ABLE scale what we are hoping to do is to use only one scale to track changes in an individual across the full spectrum of his/her recovery.