This document discusses assessment for determining educational needs. It describes the purposes of assessment as identifying delays, diagnosing issues, developing IEPs, instruction, evaluating progress, and determining support services. Assessment can be formal, through tests, or informal, via checklists and observations. The assessment process involves gathering information from tests, parents, observations, and conversations to determine strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations to address delays.

1. Chapter 3
Determining Educational Needs
through Assessment
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2. Purposes of Assessment
• Identify developmental delays
• Diagnose nature of the delay
• Develop IEP and determine placement
• Develop instruction
• Evaluate student progress
• Determine support services
• Determine skills for community participation
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3. Types of Assessment
• Formal
– Physical fitness tests,
– gross motor development tests,
– skill and/or motor proficiency tests
• Informal
– Checklists,
– rubrics,
– activities,
– observations
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4. Components of Assessment for
the IEP Process
• Formal tests
• Parental Reports
• Observations in general
environment
• Conversations with related service
personnel, classroom teachers,
and general physical educator
• Conversations with the student
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5. Assessment Process
at a Glance
• Referral
• Screening
• Formal assessment
• Determine strengths and weaknesses
• Make conclusions and recommendations
• Determine IEP goals with the IEP team,
based on evaluation process
• Determine placement based on IEP goals
• Implement and monitor IEP, report regularly
• Revisit IEP yearly
• Reevaluate every 3 years
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6. Authentic Assessment
• Testing in the natural environment in
which the skills will be used
• Provides a picture of skill
performance under the
influence of constraints
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7. Test Categories
• Normative-referenced
– Compares performance to that of
others of the same age and
gender
• Criterion-referenced
– Evaluates students ability to
complete a task based on set
criteria
• Content-referenced
– Evaluates performance on the
parts of a skill
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8. Test Selection Considerations
• Need for standardized test
• Adequacy of test standardization
• Administrative feasibility
• Student’s type of disability
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9. Test Standardization
• Given to a large group of people
under the same conditions
• Tests should be
– Valid (measures what it claims to
measure)
– Reliable (similar results with repeated
administrations)
– Objective (free from bias)
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10. Areas Impacting Feasibility
• Cost
• Equipment
• Training of tester
• Purpose of the test
• Time
• Personnel
• Standardization sample
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11. Testing Guidelines
• Become familiar with the test
• Use ‘crib notes’
• Well lighted, comfortable environment
• Carefully planned placement of equipment
• Midmorning or midafternoon
• Establish rapport with the student
• Allow repeat trials if needed
• Limit time period
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12. Organizing Results
• Interpret results shortly after testing
• Chart data to assist with locating strengths
and weaknesses
• Analyze data to identify themes and
determine possible underlying causes of
motor deficits
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13. Reporting Results
• Always start with something positive about the
student
• Describe strengths and weaknesses
• Report subtest scores and include a narrative
describing how the student executed test
items
• Include information from informal testing and
conversations with the student, parent, general
physical educator, and/or related service
personnel
• Include conclusions and recommendations
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14. Qualifying Criteria
• Varies by school district
• Beyond one standardization below the
mean, below the 25th percentile, or below
one year for the age of the student are
common guidelines
• Must also consider performance in the
affective domain
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15. Example
• Adam: 8 year old
– Diagnosis: Asperger syndrome (Autism
Spectrum Disorder)
– Tested for motor skills
• Test of Gross Motor Development-2
• Bruininks-Ostersky Test of Motor
Proficiency
• Visual screening for visual acuity, depth
perception and tracking ability
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16. Adam’s Strengths
• Running • Tracing Mazes
• Galloping • Cutting out a circle
• Sliding • Color Vision
• Leaping • Visual acuity at near
• Sliding to the left point
• Stopping the • Central fusion at near
response stick point
• Vertical phoria at far
point
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17. Adams’ Challenges
• Hop 3 times in succession
• Follow through when jumping, striking, kicking, throwing, and
rolling
• Trapping the ball against the chest
• Dribbling a ball
• Sit-ups
• Long jumps
• Balance on one foot, eyes open and closed and stepping
over a stick
• Synchronizing limbs on opposite sides of the body
• Lateral visual phoria at near and far point, central fusion and
stereo vision at far point, and acuity of right eye at far point
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18. Observations
• Only child, living with mother and father
• Non-stop talker
• Loves dinosaurs, shared and described names of many
dinosaurs
• Sharing slowed down testing process
• Second day of testing he was upset the test administrator
did not remember the name of the dinosaurs
• Hurried through test items, not scoring well
• When he was encouraged to slow down, on certain items of
the test he scored well
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19. Results – page 1
• Showed ability to stop the response stick quickly,
indicating he understood cause and effect and had an
above average reaction time
• His attention to detail when cutting out a circle showed
visual motor control on up close items
• His inability to do sit-ups showed lack of abdominal
muscle strength
• His low performance on the long jump shows lack of
explosive strength
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20. Results – page 2
• His inability to hop on non-preferred leg, to use both
arms when jumping, and inability to slide to the right
shows possible delayed development on the left side of
the body
• His inability to synchronize movement of limbs across
the center of his body indicates a delay in cross-lateral
coordination
• His lack of central vision and inability to balance on one
foot with his eyes open, to step over a stick while
walking on a balance beam, to control his dribble, to
catch a thrown ball, or to trap the ball between his arms
and chest suggests a lack of depth perception
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21. Recommendations
• Program developed for Adam should
– Strengthen abdominal muscles, extensor, abductor, and
adductor hip muscles
– Complete gross motor activities wearing weighted cuffs
on his left wrist and ankle to assist with increasing
kinesthetic feedback and muscular development
– Participate in a swimming program to promote cross-
lateral coordination
– See a visual development specialist to determine depth
perception and methods of remediation
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22. Fitness Examples
• Right-Fit: Autism Workout
• Right-Fit: Autism Workout on Stability Ball
• Right-Fit: Basic Skills
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23. Jacob – Child Prodigy
• 13 year old math and science prodigy with
Asperger’s Syndrome
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24. Assessment Summary
• Assessment is integral to education process
• Use of assessment helps to
– Identify the students with developmental delays
– Diagnose the nature of the problem or delay
– Provides information to use when writing the student’s
IEP
– Develop instruction specific to each individual student’s
needs
– Evaluate student progress after treatment is instituted
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