PSY 440 Article 2

Question 1

What is level 1 and level 2 screening, and which will this article focus on

Answer 1

a. Level 1 screening, involves routine developmental surveillance by providers of general services for young children, such as pediatricians.
b. Level 2 evaluation involves a comprehensive diagnostic assessment by experienced clinicians for children who fail the initial screening.
c. The article focuses on Level 2 screening

Question 2

a. First, a developmental perspective must be maintained
b. A second important consideration is that the evaluation of a child with ASD should include information from multiple sources and contexts, as symptoms of ASD may be dependent on characteristics of the environment.
c. Third, it is recommended that assessments of ASD are multidisciplinary whenever possible, including professionals from psychology, psychiatry, other medical specialties as needed (e.g., pediatrics, neurology) and speech and language

Answer 2

the three important considerations that should inform the assessment process?

Question 3

3. A “core” autism assessment battery covers the foundational elements that are necessary and sufficient to evaluate suspected ASD cases. What is the first step in this? What else is combined with this?

Answer 3

a. The first step of the core assessment process is to review with parents the child’s early developmental history and current concerns
b. Combined with this review is direct observation of and interaction with the child.

Question 4

4. What is the second domain that is needed in a core assessment battery

Answer 4

intellectual functioning.

Question 5

What is the second domain correlated with?

Answer 5

with severity of autistic symptoms, ability to acquire skills, and level of adaptive function and is one of the best predictors of outcome.

Question 6

What is the second domain’s goal?

Answer 6

generating a profile of the child’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, facilitating educational planning, determining eligibility for certain IQ-related services (e.g., state funded developmental disability services), and suggesting prognosis

Question 7

What is one way to overcome some of the challenges that are inherent in intellectual assessments for young students with autism?

Answer 7

a. Motivation can have a tremendous influence on test results, and assessments that incorporate reinforcement procedures can result in very different test scores.

Question 8

6. In addition to intellectual assessment tools and autism measurement tools described so far, what other domain is assessed?

Answer 8

Language

Question 9

7. What is the final component of the core autism assessment?

Answer 9

Adaptive behavior

Question 10

8.Neurophysiological assessments are not usually useful for what types of children with ASD?

Answer 10

It is not useful for non-verbal or mentally retarded children with autism.

Question 11

9. When reading about some of the neurophysiological assessment tools, such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (an executive function assessment), what are they actually measuring? Is it a truly neurophysiological assessment tool?

Answer 11

a. It is not measuring executive functioning. The observer is testing the strength of certain stimuli in the environment over the subject’s behavior, stimulus control.

Question 12

10. Why is it tricky to assess coexisting psychiatric illness in individuals with ASD?

Answer 12

a. People with autism may lack the self-insight to recognize symptoms or the motivation and social relatedness needed to report them

Question 13

11. How can information from the school context facilitate assessments?

Answer 13

a. Because the goal of assessment should be to understand how ASD affects individuals in the course of daily life, when feasible it is helpful to augment the evaluation by obtaining information from teachers or others who interact with the child in the challenging and relatively unstructured school setting

Question 14

12. Although there is no single agreed upon criterion to classify an effective treatment, what is the general consensus when it comes to classifying effective treatments?

Answer 14

Social Validity