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Assessing for Eligibility Decisions
Reading Assignment: Bender text, chapter 5
"Whether or not a child has learning disabilities is a task about which there is little consensus" (Bender, 1999, p.125).
So.....what’s the best method to identify a child or adolescent with a learning disability?
- ability-achievement discrepancy?
- emphasis on psychological processes?
- an assumption of a central nervous system (CNS) etiology?
- exclusion of other disabilities?
Bender text: Figure 5.1 Assessment for Eligibility (excellent reference)
Margaret Winzer, Children with Exceptionalities in Canadian Classrooms,5th edition, suggests "the state of identification and assessment of children with learning disabilities is any thing but easy.
- assessment practices are fraught with problems
- appropriate instruments are unavailable
- many professionals, inside and outside school system get involved; have own views of LD
- hit or miss process even inside school systems
- currently no single procedure to identify LD
- clinicians use a variety of tests and rely heavily on personal diagnostic judgment
- little consensus regarding when children should be tested, by whom, and to what purpose" (1999, p.160).
Identification involves two processes -screening and psycho-educational diagnosis.
Medical Informal Screening Formal/Psycho-educational observations observations IQ measures i.e.) WISC III physical exam interviews achievement tests hearing assessment school records visual, auditory, motor functioning vision assessment case histories diagnostic tests - inventories language measures - rating scales - - teacher made measures - - portfolios - You investigated behaviour-rating forms in your Behaviour elective and probably discussed the recommended cutoff scores indicative of a behavioural disorder rather than learning disability! You may want to review some of the literature on various rating scales.
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