Chapter 8

1. Chapter 8 Learning Aptitude

2. Purposes for Assessing Learning Aptitudes • Identification of level of intellectual performance • Evaluation of adaptive behavior • Determine if students meet requirement for services for mental retardation • Determine if there is average to above average intellectual functioning

3. Issues and Trends • Intelligence testing is controversial • Misplacement of students from diverse groups in special education • PL 94-142 provided safeguards against testing abuses

4. Current Practices • Individual intelligence tests are currently used in special education • Adaptive behavior measures rely on informants

5. Sources of Information About Learning Aptitude • School Records • Group intelligence test results • Individual intelligence test results • Developmental and school histories • Students • Individual test of intellectual performance • Current adaptive behavior is observed

6. Sources of Information About Learning Aptitude • Teachers • Observations of • learning aptitudes • adaptive behavior • Parents • Developmental histories • Observations of learning aptitudes • Information about behavior outside of school

7. Group Tests of Intellectual Performance • Rely heavily on reading skills • Use a multiple choice format • Tend to be low estimates of actual abilities • Should only be used for screening purposes

8. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–FourthEdition (WISC–IV) • Most commonly used test • One global score: Full Scale IQ • Four composite scores • Verbal Comprehension • Perceptual Reasoning • Working Memory • Processing Speed

9. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition (WISC–IV)

10. Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Ability • Cognitive factors assessed are: • Comprehension-Knowledge • Long-Term Retrieval • Visual-Spatial Thinking • Auditory Processing • Fluid Reasoning • Processing Speed • Short-Term Memory

11. Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Ability

12. Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) • Norms available only to age 12 • Cognitive factors assessed are: • Sequential processing • Simultaneous processing • Achievement

13. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fifth Edition • Arranges subtests in skill areas rather than by age • Cognitive factors assessed are: • Fluid Reasoning • Knowledge • Quantitative Reasoning • Visual-Spatial Processing • Working Memory

14. Hamill Multiability Intelligence Test (HAMIT) • Special version of Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude–4 • Results in three composite quotients: • General intelligence • Verbal intelligence • Nonverbal intelligence

15. Nonverbal Measures of Intelligence • Raven Progressive Matrices • Leiter International Performance Scale–Revised • Tests of Nonverbal Intelligence (3rd ed.) (TONI–3)

16. Nonbiased Assessment of Learning Aptitude • System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) • Rescores WISC–R based on socio-cultural factors • Includes a measure of adaptive behavior • Dynamic Assessment • Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD) • Uses a test-teach-test format • Results are primarily descriptive

17. Adaptive Behavior Measures • AAMR Adaptive Behavior Scale-School (2nd ed.) ABS-S 2 • Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales • Scales of Independent Behavior–Revised (SIB–R) • Weller-Strawser Scales of Adaptive Behavior for the Learning Disabled • Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale– Revised (ABE–R)

18. AAMR Adaptive Behavior Scale-School (2nd ed.) ABS-S:2

19. Answering the Assessment Question • Types of procedures • Group or individual intelligence testing • Adaptive behavior is assessed through: • Interviewing • Questionnaires to informants • Direct observation • The nature of tasks affect results • Learning aptitude must be documented for all mild disabilities