Assessment Tools You Can Use

1. Assessment Tools You Can Use A Practical Guide (Dr. Moses Mutuku)

2. What Should I Assess? • Behaviors • Skills • Activities

3. Why Should I Assess? • To know where the child is developmentally • To determine if child is acquiring skills and at what rate • To determine if child is lagging in any area • To make a referral • To plan curriculum

4. Six Methods of Assessment • Developmental checklists • Parent interviews • Self-portraits • Scribbling, drawing, writing samples • Audio or video tapes • Anecdotal records

5. Developmental Milestones • Four Basic Areas • Physical Growth/Motor Development • Social/Personal Development • Emotional Development/Feelings • Cognitive/Language Development

6. 1. Developmental Checklists • Helps gauge progress in developmental milestones • Complete 3 times a year • Use work samples, audio tapes, anecdotal records • Quick and easy to use • Objective • Acts as a guide to plan activities

7. Developmental Checklists (cont) • 0 – 12 months • 12 – 24 months • 24 – 36 months • 3-year-olds • 4-year-olds • 5-year-olds • 6- to 8-year-olds

8. Developmental Checklists • “Six Simple Ways to Assess Young Children” • Sue Y. Gober • Del Thomson Learning • ISBN 0-7668-3925-7 • www.delmar.com

9. 2. Parent Interviews • Invaluable tool • Parent is expert on their child • Talk without child, plan • Regularly scheduled to alleviate stress • Always begin positively • Focus on strengths and then areas to be accomplished • Only substantiated concerns shared

10. 3. Self-Portraits • Children begin around age 3 • Child needs to be able to hold writing utensil • Accept any effort • Sometimes younger children draw more details than older children • Demonstrates body awareness • Demonstrates fine motor ability • Reflects child’s thinking and knowledge of their world

11. 4. Scribbling, Drawing, Writing Samples • Children love to see their work on paper • Provide other opportunities for work to be temporary for purposes of practice • Collect one sample a month • Provide ample materials • Use positive feedback versus “praise”: “Wow! You made all the letters in your name; last time you weren’t able to make an ‘M’!”

12. 5. Audio or Video Tapes • Record child’s talking (language development) • Encourages children to talk • Record child retelling a story (cognitive development) • Record child talking to another child (social development) • Provides speech data • Provides language data • Provides information on child’s thought processes

13. 6. Anecdotal Records • Work well alone or with other assessment methods • Short notes describing significant developmental event in major domains: social (how child gets along with others), emotional (how child feels and copes with stress), cognitive (including language), physical (including gross and fine motor) • Regularly, all children, all domains

14. Screening for ADHD • 18-point screening tool • Four choices: • Never • Sometimes • Often • Always • Inattention • Hyperactivity • Impulsivity

15. Symptoms of Inattention • Does not pay close attention to details, makes mistakes in schoolwork or other activities • Difficulty sustaining attention in tasks • Does not follow through on instructions and does not finish work • Difficulty organizing tasks • Avoids or dislikes tasks with sustained mental effort (homework) • Loses things necessary for tasks (toys, books) • Easily distracted by outside stimuli • Forgetful in daily activities

16. Symptoms of Hyperactivity • Fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat • Leaves seat in classroom or other situations • Runs about or climbs too much in situations where inappropriate • Difficulty playing quietly • Is “on the go” or acts as if “driven by a motor” • Talks too much

17. Symptoms of Impulsivity • Blurts out answers before questions are completed • Difficulty waiting turn • Interrupts to intrudes on others

18. ADHD • Degrees, on a continuum • Present in all environments • Medication NEVER under age 6 • If teacher requests testing, how many other children have they referred? • Putting on the Brakes • Instruction first • Therapy second • Medication LAST • If it doesn’t work in a week, it’s not likely ADHD

19. Learning Disability Checklist for Behaviors • Often hyperactive • Rarely completes tasks in allotted time • Often acts out in class and doesn’t follow routines and rules • Can be moody and impulsive • Disorganized • Rarely thinks before acting • Does not get along well with peers • Decision making skills are weak • Late or absent • Easily frustrated

20. Learning Disability Checklist for Social Skills • Difficulty establishing friends or younger friends • Rarely accepted by peers • Argues with peers • Doesn’t accept responsibility well • Avoids peer contact or often ridiculed or involved with ridiculing • Demands instant gratification • Seeks attention • Doesn’t follow rules or routines • Prone to tantrums

21. Learning Disability Characteristics • Doesn’t make connections in similar learning concepts (may know that 5 + 3 = 8; doesn’t know 3 + 5 = 8) • Difficulty comparing, classifying, sorting to one specific criteria • Difficulty with time concepts, before, after, tomorrow, last week • Creativity and imagination limited • Slow to respond • Comments are off track • Difficulty thinking in logical and sequential manner • Difficulty with number concepts • Requires lots of clarification

22. Learning Disabilities Visual Deficits • Letter reversals: b for d, p for q • Letter and/or number inversions: M for w, p for b • Finds reasons not to read (tired) • Complains that eyes hurt • Doesn’t copy correctly • Re-reads or skips lines • Loses spot where reading • Makes sequencing errors: say on for no, saw for was • Erase often • Not enough space between words and letters run into each other • Letters hard to determine • Difficulty cutting, gluing, holding pencils properly

23. Learning Disabilities Memory Deficits • Often doesn’t remember what was seen, heard, or shown • Difficulty remembering sequences in directions or instructions • Often forgets pronunciation of frequently-used words, spelling weak • Sight vocabulary weak, reading slow to develop • Difficulty memorizing • Often appears forgetful • Expressive and receptive language is weak • Rarely uses appropriate nouns, refers to “that thing” or “you know” • Often repeats same errors

24. Learning Disability Websites • www.google.com • Enter “learning disability screening children” • http://specialed.about.com/cs/learningdisabled/a/learningd.htm • http://specialed.about.com/cs/learningdisabled/a/LD_socialskills.htm • http://specialed.about.com/cs/learningdisabled/a/behaviorskills.htm • http://specialed.about.com/cs/learningdisabled/a/ldconceptual.htm

25. Screening for Autism • Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) • Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, April 2001 • 23 items • 6 critical questions • NOT designed to be scored by person taking it • Contact child’s physician

26. Autism Critical Questions • Is child interested in other children? • Does child use index finger to point, to ask for things? • Does child imitate you (make face)? • Does child bring things to show you? • Does child respond to their name when you call them? • If you point across the room, do they look at what you are pointing to?

27. Autistic-like Behaviors • Repetitive, meaningless object manipulation (turn wheels, drop toy repetitively), inappropriate object play • Sensitivity to touch (overly, under) • Sensitivity to sound (overly, under) • Sensitivity to movement (overly, under) • Sensitivity to sight (overly, under) • Sensitivity to smells (overly, under)

28. Screening for Depression • Young children, 1 in 3 temporary • Girls and boys equal until puberty • History significant, individual and familial • Do not ignore

29. Symptoms of Depression • Bored • Irritable, angry, hostile • Difficulty with relationships • Frequent absences, poor performance at school • Frequent vague, nonspecific physical complaints (headache, stomachache, tired) • Lack of interest in playing with friends • Talks about running away from home • Outbursts of shouting, complaining, unexplained irritability, or crying • Sleep disorders (too much, too little) • Activity (too much, too little) • Feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt • Death or suicide talk (TIME TO REFER!!!)

30. Other Screening Tools • Denver Developmental Screening-II • ESI (Early Screening Inventory, Meisels & Wiske) • Ages and Stages (assessment) • Brigance