McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Chapter 7 Intellectual Performance and Adaptive Behavior

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Learning Aptitude Ability for altering behavior when presented with new information or experiences

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Purposes for Assessing Learning Aptitudes Part of identification of several different disabilities The combined use of measures of intelligence and adaptive behavior provide a global picture of a student’s current aptitude for learning Determination of general learning aptitude is critical to identify a student for eligibility for special education services under disability categories such as mental retardation, learning disabilities and behavioral disorders

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Issues and Trends Intelligence testing is controversial Misplacement of students from diverse groups in special education PL provided safeguards against testing abuses Professionals are now aware of clear guidelines for the appropriate use of intelligence tests Research on intelligence continues

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Current Practices Individual intelligence tests are currently used in special education Several measures of intelligence are available Adaptive behavior measures rely on informants

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. 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

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. 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

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Group Tests of Intellectual Performance Group tests are typically used in general education environments Scores tend to be low estimates of actual abilities Many group tests of intelligence are current editions of long-used measures Should only be used for screening purposes

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) Most commonly used test One global score: Full Scale IQ Four composite scores –Verbal Comprehension –Perceptual Reasoning –Working Memory –Processing Speed

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. WISC-IV Integrated New combination of two tests: WISC-IV and a revision of the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition as a Process Instrument Includes all subtests of new WISC-IV plus 16 process subtests Process subtests allow the examiner to determine if student performance will improve when administration conditions are altered in some way

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities Cognitive factors assessed are: –Comprehension-Knowledge –Long-term Retrieval –Visual-Spatial Thinking –Auditory Processing –Fluid Reasoning –Processing Speed –Short-term Memory

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition (K-ABC- II) Administration requires formal training Norms available for ages 3-0 to Assesses mental processing No longer contains achievement subtests; a companion test, the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Second Edition was co-normed with the KABC-II

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. 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

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Hammill Multiability Intelligence Test (HAMIT) Special version of Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude-4 Results in three composite quotients: –General intelligence –Verbal intelligence –Non-verbal intelligence

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) PASS theory of cognitive processing – Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive Basic battery contains 8 subtests, standard battery contains 12 subtests

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Nonverbal Measures of Intelligence Raven Progressive Matrices Leiter International Performance Scale- Revised Tests of Non-verbal Intelligence (3rd ed.) (TONI-3) Newer measures –Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test –Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT)

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Non-biased 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 –The relationship of between the examiner and the learner is interactive and the examiner provides feedback to the learner.

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Non-biased Assessment of Learning Aptitude cont. Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD) –Uses a test-teach-test format –Results are primarily descriptive WISC-IV Enhanced –Can choose to administer process subtests with this measure if standard subtests suggest areas of difficulty

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. Adaptive Behavior Measures AAMR Adaptive Behavior Scale-School (2nd ed.) ABS-S:2 Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Second Edition Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised (SIB-R) Supports Intensity Scale Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale- Second Edition (ABE-R2)

McLoughlin/Lewis, Assessing Students with Special Needs, 7e ISBN: © 2009 Pearson Education Inc. All rights reserved. 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