Assessment of Developmental Skills for Young Multihandicapped Sensory Impaired Children

1. Assessment of Developmental Skills for Young Multihandicapped Sensory Impaired Children The INSITE Developmental Checklist Presentation Developed By Carol Amburn - Denise Hilton - Leslie Randall

2. Manual Divisions • General Description of the Checklist • Concurrent Validity • Use of the Checklist • Instructions for Scoring and Reporting • The Checklist, Forms, and Score Sheets

3. 1. General Description • The checklist is based on the development of normal children but adapted for use with multi-handicapped, sensory impaired (MHSI) • It is used in the home to assess the child’s development in order to write and update the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) and the Individual Educational Plan (IEP) • The checklist includes the developmental areas of gross motor, fine motor, self-help, cognition, social-emotional development, communication, vision, audition and taction. • There is a long version of the checklist which assesses MHSI children 0-6 years and a short version which assesses children 0-2 years. The items on the 0-2 checklist are the same as the 0-2 portion of the 0-6 checklist. • The checklist is made of milestone behaviors that are cross-referenced to activities in specified curricula.

4. 2. Concurrent Validity • Study was conducted at the SKI*HI Institute to look at the relationship of Callier-Azusa scores to INSITE Developmental Checklist scores. Twenty nine children were involved in the study. • The Callier-Azusa is a standardized, criterion-referenced developmental scale the was specifically designed to assess deaf-blind and other profoundly handicapped children. • The overall correlation of the INSITE Checklist to the Callier-Azusa is high (0.68). • Even though the correlation is high, children tend to score as much as 6.2 months lower on the INSITE Checklist.

5. 3. Use of the Checklist • Before using the INSITE Checklist medical and diagnostic information should be carefully reviewed in order to determine how the assessment will be made. • The entire checklist may be overwhelming for the parent and other support personnel may be able to provide information that the parent may not feel confident about. • The length of time to complete the checklist will vary according to the child’s age and disabilities. • Areas of the checklist can be covered in any order. • The initial assessment should take no longer than four to six weeks with only 20 to 30 minutes of the home visit being used for assessment. Updates will go more quickly.

6. Checklist Use cont. • Step 1 – Find out which developmental areas the parent is most concerned about and begin with these. Ask general questions that allow the parents to give descriptive information. • Step 2 – Before the next home visit, study the selected areas of the checklist, mark any skills already observed and plan questions or behaviors to be covered. • Step 3 - If possible , do not take the checklist into the home. Do the activities and ask the questions in a relaxed manner. Discuss and summarize with the parent and decide on several specific skills to work on over the next few months. Ask probe questions for the next area of assessment. • Step 4 – use the information from the visit to finish scoring the checklist. Write parent and child goals and objectives and plan the next area of assessment using the same four steps.

7. Checklist Use cont. • During the last visit of the assessment phase, review the objectives that were chosen and prioritize if necessary. • Help parents be realistic about what they can actually do. Help them to be realistic and flexible. • Urge parents to chose objectives in areas of strength as well as weakness so they see success. • Goals and objectives should be written on the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). A goal should be a skill that can be accomplished within one year. Objectives are sub skills that might be accomplished within months. • Look at the objectives and determine which are interrelated. Group objectives and begin planning activities. • Plan activities that meet more than one objective so that parents will have only a few things they will try to do each week. • Use activities geared to fit into the routine of the family day and they will more likely be carried out.

8. 4. Scoring Instructions • Step by step instructions are included in the manual. • The behavior must be a spontaneously occurring behavior in order for it to be considered accomplished. • Do not report emerging skills on the score sheet or profile form. • The child can’t go lower than the original base step unless there is actual regression due to illness, increase in seizures, progressive hearing loss or visual deterioration. • The score sheets show the age intervals of the child’s base-steps instead of the highest levels of the child’s base-steps as ar shown on the profile sheet. The score sheets have room in the margins for the parent advisor to make notes.

9. 5. Checklist, Profile Forms and Score Sheets • The score sheet automatically accompanies each INSITE Checklist when ordered. Additional score sheets may also be ordered. • Each checklist comes with a quick instruction sheet and one set of profile and scoring forms. • Pictures are provided in forms to help with recognition of desired behaviors.

10. For Additional Information Contact: Home Oriented Program Essentials (HOPE) 1780 North Research Park Way, Suite 110 North Logan Utah 84321 Telephone (801) 752-9533 http://wwwhopepub.com