Assessment

Question 1

Why Assess?

Answer 1

• to improve learning experiences so that all children can benefit from their educational experiences

Question 2

Assessment..

Answer 2

• to ascertain knowledge
• identify strengths and weaknesses
• purpose of diagnosing, referring to services, planning instruction or curriculum, evaluating programs and determining school readiness
• Assessment informs treatment planning!

Question 3

Decisions regarding assessment

Answer 3

• amount of structure (structured, semi structured, unstructured)
• Methods to use (observation, interview, testing, work sampling, surveys)
• Child vs family focus
• current vs historical focus
• level of parent involvement
• what should be assessed?

Question 4

Assessment

Answer 4

MULTIPLE METHODS are crucial!

• any one method will give only its perspective
• Any form of assessment is subject to bias

Question 5

Culture in assessment

Answer 5

• importance of transcending egotism

- integrating group identity and individuality

Question 6

assessment and issues

Answer 6

• developmental appropriateness
• qualifications of assessor
• consent from parent AND CHILD
• privacy

Question 7

Screenings

Answer 7

• process to IDENTIFY children who have a high probability of showing delayed or atypical development
• usually one measure, whereas assessments are usually multiple measures

Question 8

Developmental Screening

Answer 8

• brief, efficient
• inexpensive
• easy to learn
• objectively scored
• reliable and valid
• culturally fair

Question 9

Interviewing

Answer 9

• active listening key
• extract information from them (creates a power differential)
• opportunity to build relationship with family though (how you are just as important as what you do)
• helps you understand what they see as reality
• integrate results (record data, look for common themes, note emotional reactions, develop story, history taking vs history making)

Weaknesses: time constraints, prior knowledge can bias interviewer, feeling critical of parents can damage rapport, feelings of over-responsbility (wanting to give parents ways to fix it)

Question 10

Interviewing Children

Answer 10

• relational rationality rather than scientific
• process is more important than the end truth
• pleasing or not letting down interviewer is important to kids
• let them use manipulatives, sit diagonally instead of right across from them, build rapport, let them get familiar with room/you
• children know more than we think they do!
• explain confidentiality to them
• ask open ended questions, ask informational less sensitive questions first
• engage in drawing
• use simple sentences
• refrain from asking leading questions
• repeat when necessary
• use multiple choice when needed
• use scenarios
• reassure and praise effort (not answers)
• follow child’s lead
• children as young as 4 can provide relevant info
• interviewer must observe reactions and behaviors

Question 11

Funnel Technique

Answer 11

• ask child to tell you a story or ask them open ended questions, follow up by asking clarifying questions, follow those questions buy asking more narrow questions for details

Question 12

McArthur Story Stem Battery

Answer 12

• enact every day, non fantasy scenarios and have child finish story - predictive of emotional difficulties

Question 13

Berkley Puppet Interview

Answer 13

• two puppets make opposite statements and the examiner asks the child, “How about you?”
• Can be used on children as young as four
• Reports validated on peer relationships, anxiety, depression, conduct problems, aggressive behavior and achievement motivation
  Example: “I have a lot of friends at school/I don’t have a lot of friends at school.” “What about you?”

Question 14

Structured

Answer 14

• explore relatively circumscribed topics and provide users with a standardized method for eliciting information
• maximizes reliability and validity, minimizes interview bias, produces consistent data
  WEAKNESSES: focus on diagnosis, not intervention
• requires extensive training
• gather limited information on non-diagnostic facts
• unable to ask follow up questions
• may compromise rapport

Question 15

Unstructured

Answer 15

• Allow for maximum flexibility in information gathering, potentially greater focus on problems considered relevant by the child or family
• assessment of a broader range of clinical information
• only real constraints on unstructured interviews are imposed by the interviewer’s theoretical model and practical considerations, such as obtaining demographic information for clerical functions
• can lead to inconsistent or incomplete formulations
• should be used in combination with OTHER data

Strengths: highly flexible, tailor to individual needs, helpful in problem conceptualization and treatment planning

Weaknesses: minimal structure may lead to problems with reliability and validity, comparison between unstructured interviews is difficult, requires high level of interviewing skills

Question 16

Semi-Structured

Answer 16

Advantages: allows flexibility while maintaining a standard format

• provides a framework
• allows for follow up as needed

Disadvantages: weak reliability and validity

Question 17

Observation

Answer 17

Advantages: professional experience will influence how you see the child, observations provide a lot of data, behavior is often context bound, get to witness interactions with others, sensory stimuli, preverbal children (advantage)

Disadvantage: Errors of omission, errors of commission (recording what is not seen), have to be aware of your own bias and subjectivity, how you record data is important, time consuming, can’t observe history, have to make inferences about subject’s internal states

Question 18

Methods of observation

Answer 18

• narrative
• annecdotal (what you think is meaningful)
• running record (everything possible)

Question 19

Event sampling

Answer 19

• number of times during entire period the behavior is seen

- infrequent and brief

Question 20

Interval

Answer 20

presence or absence of behavior in short intervals within long observation period (not counting how many times, just DID it happen during that period)
- frequent and brief

Question 21

Duration

Answer 21

length of time the behavior occurs

- infrequent and sustained

Question 22

Latency

Answer 22

length of time between behaviors

- frequent and sustained

Question 23

School Readiness

Answer 23

Educational demands + Supports + child’s knowledge and skills
- Congress Definition: knows about letters (can identify 10), receptive and expressive vocab, associate sounds with written words, recognize words as a unit of print
- Teacher Definition: healthy and well-rested, communicates needs verbally, enthusiastic and curious
- Parent definition: count to 10, know letters and color, know address and phone number, share, communicate, follow directions
State Early Learning Standards: Physical well being, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, language, cognition and general knowledge
- Child definition: know and follow rules, know where things are and what to do, making friends

Question 24

Maturationist Approach to School Readiness

Answer 24

• children are ready to start school when they reach a level of maturity that enables them to sit quietly, focus on work, follow directions and interact socially with peers

Question 25

Environmentalist Approach to School Readiness

Answer 25

- readiness in terms of practical characteristics of child's behavior, guidance/teaching experiences lead to skills child has, external evidence of learning, focus on what child can do /how they behave

Question 26

Social Constructivist Approach to School Readiness

Answer 26

- rejects the idea that readiness comes from within the child or something the child should be evaluated on. Instead, sees readiness as something constructed based on social and cultural values. - shifts focus to the community

Question 27

Interactionist approach to school readiness

Answer 27

- focuses on children's learning and the school's capacity to meet the individual needs of students

Question 28

Self Regulation and School Readiness

Answer 28

- transition to school is a critical time in young kid's lives. - successful transitions require strong self-regulation in order for students to successfully function and learn - increasing demands on social and self reg skills in addition to literacy, numeracy and writing skills - children who enter kindergarten without adequate self-regulation are at high risk for a host of difficulties (peer rejection, low academic achievement) - promoting adaptive self-regulation in early childhood is key to ensure long term school success

Question 29

Components of executive functioning key to school success

Answer 29

- attentional/cognitive flexibility (focus and sustain attention on a task while ignoring other distractions) - working memory (keeping information in mind while processing it helps kids remember classroom rules) - inhibitory control (stopping impulsive responses)

Question 30

ESI-R

Answer 30

- designed to identify children who may need special educational services in order to perform successfully at school - identify possibility of learning or handicapping condition - not intended as an IQ test or school readiness test - intended to survey a child's ability to acquire skills, rather than child's current level of achievement - not all children who are identified will need specialized support- meant to catch the "maybes"

Question 31

Screening

Answer 31

- Does: identify children who may need further evaluation, provide professionals with limited information, helps to prevent secondary delays or disorders, assists in hypothesis testing, single tool used, may lead to an assessment - inform about areas of strength and weaknesses - pre-referral process - preventative Doesn't Do: provide diagnostic labels, serve as school readiness tests, suggest long term curriculum goals, provide date for pre/post exams, evaluate programming, replace a thorough assessment

Question 32

When might you re-screen?

Answer 32

- know that developmental instability is more likely than stability - parent may report behavior as atypical that day - environment may have been disruptive - child falls just below cut off

Question 33

Screening tools

Answer 33

- Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment Program - Ages and Stages Questionnaire (easy to use, specific skills and parent concerns assessed) - Batelle Developmental Inventory (well standardized, need training to conduct) - Bayley Scales of Development (high level of training required, may not be practical in pediatric settings) _ Brigance (parent report for ages 0-2)

Question 34

Assessment

Answer 34

- ongoing and dynamic process that determines function, informs instruction and intervention and evaluates outcomes

Question 35

Theory of Assessment

Answer 35

Why are you collecting information? *PURPOSE What information are you collecting? *DATA How are you collecting information? METHOD How are you making sense of the information? *INTERPRETATION

Question 36

Hawthorne Effect

Answer 36

- when subject changes their behavior due to knowing they are being observed

Question 37

Observation as Generalizable

Answer 37

how well does what we see during an observation represent the behavior of interest outside the session? low generalizability = low validity

Question 38

Structured activity vs. naturalistic

Answer 38

``` structured= directed task naturalistic= observe participants as they would if not observed ```

Question 39

Inter-rater reliability

Answer 39

consistency of observers in recording behaviors - when behavior is well-defined, reliability is high - if vaguely defined, reliability tends to suffer

Question 40

Social/Emotional Assessments

Answer 40

Objective reports= child behavior checklist Functional Analysis (when there is a problem behavior) Projectives = individuals must impose their own structure on the item, stimuli are unstructured, structure is meaningful, indirect method, freedom of response, interpretations are broad (all projective test share an assumption that when people try to make sense of ambiguous stimuli their understanding is determined by their feelings, experiences, needs and though processes) - inkblots, story cards, incomplete sentences

Question 41

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Answer 41

- 31 cards depicting people in a variety of ambiguous situations (1 blank card) - examinee is asked to create a story about each picture - scoring/interpretation (content analysis of themes that emerge) - assessing locus of problems, nature of needs and quality of relationships (lack of norms though, clinicians rely on qualitative impressions)

Question 42

Play and Drawings

Answer 42

- have dual functions - way of working out normal developmental issues - way of communicating emotional distress - good way to build rapport - kids telling you indirectly about themselves - safer way to express self - symbols and metaphors stand in for elements in kids' lives - must keep in mind what are developmentally appropriate abilities - must pay attention to behavioral reactions, emotional state and what they tell you about it

Question 43

Play and assessment

Answer 43

helps you see social skills, cooperation, conflict negotiation, following of rules - popularity and group membership - understanding of social roles - emotional expression and regulation - inner conflicts/concerns

Question 44

Performance Assessment: Work Sampling

Answer 44

- methods that enable children to show their knowledge, skills and personality through performing tasks that are of their daily experience - a continuous progress - guidelines and checklists - portfolios - summary reports - focus on individual students, attention to all areas, alignment with national standards, relevance to instruction, data to be aggregated, standardized training and administration, extensively researched

Question 45

Curriculum embedded assessment

Answer 45

- based on students typical classroom performance - observe and document child's skills and accomplishments - keep track of what individual children know and do - plan developmentally appropriate classroom experiences

Question 46

Instructional Assessment

Answer 46

- primary focus on individual learning - clarifies what students are learning and have begun o master - guides instructional decision making

Question 47

Portfolios

Answer 47

- purposeful collection of student work - shows quality of work, demonstrates progress, displays work across domains, involves children in evaluating their own work, assists with planning

Question 48

Summary reports

Answer 48

- combine information from checklists and portfolios - rate student performance and progress - highlight strengths, weaknesses, concerns and plans

Question 49

On-demand assessment

Answer 49

- objective assessment that measures specific skills out of the classroom context - comparing to a normative sample - how well can child respond to a particular set of test items

Question 50

Three types of standards

Answer 50

1) program standards: describe form and structure of early childhood settings, regulate structural elements 2) Content standards: knowledge, skills, competencies children are expected to master 3) Performance standards: concrete specific examples of competent, skilled knowledgable behavior (rubric, scoring framework)

Question 51

Why assess?

Answer 51

To determine when services or special considerations are needed to enhance a child's functioning

Question 52

IFSP/IEP

Answer 52

individualized plans aimed to meet needs of young children with disabilities and their families thereby enabling them to benefit from their educational experiences

Question 53

IEP process

Answer 53

referral, screening, written request, evaluation, eligibility meeting (all must take place within 60 school days) - multidisciplinary - parent involved - native language - across domains

Question 54

relationships and assessment

Answer 54

- different people can bring out different behaviors! | - power of relationships in assessment key

Question 55

Environmental considerations

Answer 55

- physical environment - learning environment - social environment

Question 56

Reliability

Answer 56

- consistency of observations or measurements - degree of error in an instrument - high measurement error= low reliability values or r (correlation coefficient) range from 0 to 1 .80 or higher are considered good! (inter rater, test-retest, internal consistency)

Question 57

Validity

Answer 57

the degree to which a test measures what it is designed to measure - face validity (look right) - content validity (contents of a test is representative of domain) - concurrent validity (degree to which test scores are correlated with a related but independent set of test scores or behaviors) Predictive validity (can predict behavior or test scores in future)

Question 58

Adaptive behavior

Answer 58

developmentally bound - culturally bound - behavioral competence vs. problems - typical performance vs. pure ability - 3 dimensions (conceptual, social, practical)