What I wish I’d done differentlyI think that's a really good plan. Unfortunately, J doesn't cooperate well with testing. They couldn't really get any data when they did the MDT assessment, and the ABLLs don't seem to be going so well, either. Next year will be the tri-annual review. They might have more luck then. But what do we do in the meantime when you've got so little quantifiable data to work with, that's my question... Evie -- What my oldest son's teachers do is build testing into his daily work. They'll do one subtest per day (or less, or more, depending on how it goes).
I went to the IEP meeting yesterday with all the standardized testing done since 2004 written out and as much as I could graph on a Bell Curve graphed. I showed the testing to the group and pointed out that I could not complete the Bell Curve with this year's testing because the results were not expressed in Standard Scores, so there was no way to compare to the last tests. PLUS, from year to year DIFFERENT tests were used, so there is no real way to gauge progress at all! I told them that there is some evidence that my son has made real improvements over the past year, but because thay have not used the same tests year after year, there is no way for them to really tell and, therefore, no way for them to take credit. Also, no way for them to know what part of his program caused the positive change. I showed them that the testing was all over the lot over the past 5 years, rendering it useless. We got an agreement to use the SAME testing each year for these last 3 years of my son's schooling and they are going to update what they can now. Even if one type of test changes a bit from year to year, it is still comparable, year to year. The problem comes when DIFFERENT tests are used to measure the same skill. Then the scores cannot reliably be compared, year to year. Schools are REQUIRED to test every three years. Parents can ASK to test every year (I'd skip asking for an IQ test every year -- it's testing of SKILL areas that is important). A school district can take a parent to a hearing to deny testing or a parent can take a school district to a hearing to force testing. Usually, the tests are available in the school and it doesn't actually cost anything but time to do the testing. Ask. Every year. If the school won't, get your own outside testing. It's worth the money And some of the testing (like speech ) may be paid for by insurance. As far as interpreting tests goes, I was disgusted when the county expert assigned to my younger son could not comment at all on the evaluation papers from the hospital. We're talking standard tests like the ADOS, Stanford-Binet, etc. I expected that she could read the papers and make an educated comment, but no. I personally did not need her feedback, but the school wanted someone who could interpret the papers for them. I had already done that in a summary letter, and even though they respect me and appreciated the information, they wanted to hear from a so-called expert. Snoop -- yo ushare my concern about EF. IS there any standardized testing for it?When we participated in the autism study, we filled out the Norwegian preschool version of a test called BRIEF-P. It's not a test but a parent checklist, but it is designed to rate the following executive functions: Inhibit: Control impulses; stop behavior Shift: Move freely from one activity/situation to another; transition; problem-solve flexibly Emotional Control: Modulate emotional responses appropriately Initiate: Begin activity; generate ideas Working Memory: Hold information in mind for purpose of completing a task Plan/Organize: Anticipate future events; set goals; develop steps; grasp main ideas Monitor: Check work; assess own performance Organization of material
I explain more about it under this topic (scroll down to the last post on the page):
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24455&am p;PN=2&TPN=1 My ds was in the below-average class, but after testing in January - they decided to move him up to the average class and he is excelling. I notice this at home as well. We just had conferences last night and he got "excellents" in reading fluency, reading comprehension and math skills. They have weekly tests on each of these, as well as weekly spelling tests. I'm not sure what would benefit to test him more at this point? He is doing really well - the teacher is very pleased. At home, when we do homework - he seems to be "getting it" although math is not his favorite. We are still drilling math facts - but a lot of kids have problems with this at this point. He knows the facts when adding to 10 - but they are working on up to 15 now, and that is where he struggles a bit. However, all the kids are (I tutor several of them during math time once a week). I can see written expression being an issue for him. His main issue is when he is expected to DRAW a story. He does not have good drawing skills and so that is very hard for him. He can write a story - but the words aren't spelled anywhere near correctly. He also has a hard time with capitalization and punctuation. These are the areas we will focus on in our daily "summer school" that we do for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes every weekday in the summer. He just had his receptive and expressive language tested and scored slightly above average in each. My biggest concerns are his executive functioning skills: organization in particular along with following three-step directions. When he was TESTED, he did fine on three-step directions. But in real life? He rarely can do them. So, in this instance - the test is of no use to me, because he can do these things in an environment where there are no distractions and it is one-on-one. He can do this with me in a controlled environment too. We play a game that has three-step directions in them (from Linguisystems - I can't remember the name of it). He can do them just fine. But, if I ask him to go get his pajamas on, go potty and bring something down from his room - inevitably he will forget one of those items. Sometimes two! So, I just wondered tzoya - if you have any suggestions for testing? He had his 3 year re-eval recently and they did the Vineland and ABAS, along with a Wechsler IQ (he scored a 95, but the school psych said there was one part where he was EXTREMELY distracted - and it involved something that was timed (which is his very weak suit) - so that brought his score down dramatically. I don't remember the other tests they did - but it was very thorough. They did an academic one too - something like Woodcock-Johnson (this is probably not right, I'm going from memory) and receptive/expressive language. Also did a thorough OT eval and an adaptive Phy Ed eval. Plus they had me fill out an autism scale as well. They did not do an ADOS because they said they were not questioning whether or not he has autism - but they they needed to include at least ONE autism scale and thought it good if I (as the parent) and the teacher filled it out. They also did classroom observations. I also know that if I request the testing, they will do it in a heartbeat. I have a very good relationship with the staff and they really, really like my ds (this was quite evident at the parent-teacher conference last night). The principal is a gem and she thinks he is awesome. She had several examples and stories to tell me last night at the conference (and there are over 600 students in the school, btw). But, I also know that resources are tight and I don't want to request something without sound reasoning for it. Which I guess is my question - what sound reasoning could I provide in order to ask for this yearly testing? If it garners us nothing - I'm not sure that I can justify asking for it. So, I would love to hear what would be a good way to ask for this? Also, kids are learning new things each year - so how could they get the same test each year? I would imagine that tests not only come out with new editions, but also each grade level would be different? Maybe I'm just not understanding what you're saying? I'm sorry that you are looking back and seeing that your son hasn't always gotten what he needs due to inconsistent testing. Thanks for sharing your wisdom! I look forward to hearing any further insights you might have! And micki - yes, you almost have to have a degree or background in education to interpret tests. I have a background in psychology and social work, so have a lot of experience in interpreting those kinds of tests. But each one is new and so it is often difficult. But, I do find that my background has been immensely helpful. I was able to know what the best tests were for my son to have done (for the most part) for his re-eval. They were very impressed with my fairly in-depth knowledge of the tests and what they would really test. But, you also have to ask questions if you don't understand - that's the only way to learn! My ds' teachers are great about explaining things and I try to take notes and then file them away so that when I have questions later (when re-reading things) - I will have the answers. This helps me a lot! Tzoya, you bring up very good points and definitely gave me alot to think about. Since your son is older than mine, you have already been through what I am going through now. Personally, I get so caught up in the day to day and figuring out placement and services like you discussed that I haven't ever really thought about the standardized testing. Thanks for bringing this up, it is definitely something that I will do some research on.
Thanks for posting.... thats some valuable insight everyone has provided. I will have to go back and check his eval and see what all they did. The speech pathologist did it - and now I am wondering if she just gave him several 3-step directions and he did them. But, I will check for sure. I also will need to check out the BRIEF-P NorwayMom - thanks! You are awesome as always!  Tzoya, If parents request testing every year, are school districts required to complete tests every year instead of every three years? Becky VERY interesting point. However, the test edition used can change from year to year, too. And of course the test designers know their "market," and that their market might depend on the economy ... but this sounds paranoid of me! AUGH! Also, T is due for testing next year. I am not looking forward to the stress this causes her ... or the school's alleged results. I am still quite sure her "IQ" is far higher than the test resutls indicate. So I while I think you definitely have a point, not sure I am willing to act on it ...
Good advice. I've been struggling to get the school to do testing at all. They're still kind of amateurish here, and weren't familiar with any test material, procrastinated, etc. At least now the school has started testing of all students for math and reading skills each year, so my youngest son stands to benefit from that (he doesn't need special education for academics so far). Plus I've been struggling to get specific and measurable IEP goals. Testing would probably make it easier to get a better IEP, too. Thanks for the tip. It is a good point. I was actually just looking at my son's reading comprehension assessments and must admit that I have no clue how to interpret them. The thing that gets to me is that as a parent you basically have to know as much or more than the people teaching your kid in order to figure out if they are getting an appropriate education. Seems unreasonable. Each state is mandated by the IDEA to have a non-profit agency that provides parent education and training regarding the IDEA and IEPs at no cost to the parents. But I suppose they can't really help you with the kind of questions you have, Micki. For those who are interested, here's a list of Parent Training and Information Centers for all 50 states: http://www.angelfire.com/ny/Debsimms/pti.html My son is 18 and will stay in school until age 21. I went over some things today because tomorrow is our Annual Review IEP meeting. I decided to try to graph his standardized test scores since 2004. Turns out that much of the testing is using different standardized tests and different areas have been tested. There really had been NO consistency over the years. I've gotten far better about asking for standardized testing yearly, but It's still not the same tests year after year. My focus has always been on getting my child services. The REAL focus should have been to get my child TESTED, and the services would grow out of that. If I had to start all over again, I'd focus on testing using standardized tests every year and base all decisions for the next year on that. It took me until my son was nearly an adult to "get" this. I'm hoping more of you will "get" this now and stop trying to get specific services for your kids and, instead, but your advocacy efforts into getting regular testing that is the SAME testing, year to year. The warranted services will naturally grow out of that. IMHO, most kids need to have their decoding, reading comp, written expression, math skills, expressive and receptive language tested using standardized tests YEARLY. Schools MUST test every three years, but even then, they don't always test the same areas using the same tests, so it's hard to really and truly gauge progress. Take if from me -- get the IEP Team to test, test, test. IT's the ONLY way to keep the school accountable for your child's progress. Take it from one who wishes she knew this 16 years ago!Thanks Tzoya, im glad u got that written into ur sons IEP, i never even thought about them using diff tests affecting this, i will request that now that i know!
This kind of testing is completely ineffective for my kid, and per his teacher, it really isn't effective on any of her kids (moderate/severe). Maybe as he gets older ... we'll see. She's required to do it, but it really isn't indicative of his abilities. [QUOTE=NorwayMom] Evie -- What my oldest son's teachers do is build testing into his daily work. They'll do one subtest per day (or less, or more, depending on how it goes).
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Ah, thanks, Norway. I'll have to ask my son's teachers about that, and see if that's in fact what they are doing. I think they are, at least with the ABLLs. :) For kids whose functioning level precludes the usual standardized tests, using systematic data collection can be effective. IMHO, if a child's functioning level is too low to use standardized testing, he ought to be getting some form of ABA in which regular data is being collected. Data collection on behaviors can be very, very effective, too. I was at an IEP meeting yesterday (professionally) in which the classroom teacher did a graph of this high functioning child's aggressive outbursts and compared them to the graph last year's teacher did. The graphs covered every 15 minutes of every day in school for the whole year. When there was a violent outburst that included physical aggression, a block on the graph was blacked out. When there was a simple burst of anger, there was an X in the box. When there was nothing the box remained blank. Each graph covered every 15 minutes, every day for the whole year! WHen this year's graph was compared to last year's, the difference was seen immediately and was DRAMATIC. Last year's graphs was COVERED in black boxes. This year, there were only a handful and a few X's. Mostly, it was blank. This showed DRAMATICALLY the progress this boy had made (with the use of an excellent BIP as well as medication). Data like this can be used to show progress in any area. The trick is to get the teachers trained to do it. For children who are strongy affected by Autism, the teacher should be pretrained to do this sort of data gathering/analysis. |
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