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ROLE OF ASSESSMENTS IN EARLY IDENTIFICATION & INTERVENTION
Dr. Smita Desai
DRISHTI
2009
Focus
• Early identification-purpose & process• Areas of developmental assessment• Types of assessments/diagnostic tools
for developmental areas• Role of assessments in intervention• Late bloomers…fact or myth?
Early identification-Purpose
• Determine presence of developmental problems that may be obstacles to learning or place children ‘at risk’ for learning difficulties
(This includes children from birth through 5 years)• Provide early intervention services• Limit scope of “Cascading effect”
{Identification at this stage would not be able to distinguish between children whose problems may persist from those who will make adequate progress with time.}
Early identification-Process
• Screening• Determining presence of risk indicators &
protective factors• Systematic observations• Assessment of developmental status
Screening
• Recognise risk indicators• Determine if additional evaluation is required• Outline domains for assessment• Screening is not intended for diagnosis, placement or
planning• All preschoolers should be screened for vision,
hearing, gross & fine motor development, early language development, reading skill development
• Screening tools: Case History, rating checklists for caregivers, observations, Developmental screeners (e.g. Developmental Indicators for Assessment of learning-DIAL)
Risk Indicators and protective factors
Risk Indicators:• Pre-, Peri-, postnatal
conditions• Genetic &
environmental conditions
• Developmental milestones
• Attention & behaviour
Protective factors:• Access to quality
pre-, peri-, postnatal care
• Maternal education• High quality learning
opportunities• Multiple supports-
therapy, school, home
• Risk indicators do not indicate a definite presence of a learning disability, neither do they necessarily predict later difficulties.
• Protective factors do not rule out prevention or presence of a disability
• However, presence of risk indicators definitely indicate the need for immediate action
Systematic Observations
• Specifics of Situation/Environment• Child’s approach to materials and
activities• Level of attention, interest• Utilisation of energy• Quality of movement• Communication, social interaction• Behaviour, emotional expression
Developmental assessment
• It is a comprehensive evaluation to ascertain the developmental status of a child
• This could be across various domains of development
• The main goal is to determine the child’s specific pattern of abilities and needs.
• It also helps to recommend a plan of action to address the developmental delays/deficits
• An interdisciplinary approach is required • These evaluations should focus on developmental
norms across different domains
Interdisciplinary team
• Audiologist• Speech/language pathologist• Physio-therapist• Occupational therapist• Educational/school psychologist• Special educator• Early childhood education teachers
Areas of developmental assessment
• Motor functions: gross-, fine-, oral motor• Sensory functions: auditory, visual, kinesthetic, haptic• Communication: speech/language form & content• Social-emotional adjustment: activities of daily living,
behaviour, social interaction, play• Cognition: attention, perceptual organization, concept
formation, memory• Emergent literacy: phonological awareness, print
awareness, number recognition & concepts
Tools for developmental assessmentMotor functions• Development sequence
Checklists for gross & fine motor development, posture and balance, sensory systems, development of pre-writing and handwriting skills.
• Bayley Scales of Infant Development
Communication• Test of early language
development• Pre-School language
scale -3• Developmental English
language List• Linguistic Profile Test• Test for Auditory
comprehension of language
Tools for developmental assessmentCognition• Developmental activities Screening
Inventory- DASI-II• Seguin Form Board• Stanford Binet Intelligence scale/BKT• Bayley Scales of Infant development• Battelle Developmental Inventory
Tools for developmental assessment
Emergent literacy• Phonological
awareness, recognition of lower case and upper case letters, number recognition, number names, pre-writing skills, language concepts
Social/adaptive• Vineland Social
Maturity Scale• Battelle
Developmental Inventory
• Child Behaviour Checklist
Role of assessments in early intervention
• Identification• Placement• Program planning (intervention)• Re-evaluation
Limit the scope of the ‘Cascading effect’
Late bloomers: fact or myth?
• Developmental lag theory (late bloomers) vs. Skill deficit theory• 3 important longitudinal studies (Juel,1988;
Francis, et al 1996; Shaywitz et al., 1999) clearly indicate the presence of skill deficits in the performance of poor readers versus a developmental lag
• In these studies, poor readers, on an average never caught up with the average/good readers on any measure of reading ability.
