Go the extra mile
with nonverbal students
Assess against developmental norms, write functional IEPs
By John Zbornik
When outside evaluations for nonverbal students with diagnoses of mental retardation or autism don't give you much more to go on than conclusions of "cannot test," John Zbornik thinks you have to think outside the box to gather useful information.
"We're stuck in a norm-referenced framework which is meaningless in placing a student with MR or autism [but needed for eligibility for special education]," said Zbornik, school psychologist with the Lakewood City (Ohio) Public Schools. "It would be easy to stop here, but evaluations that say 'cannot test' don't tell us anything. We need to look for a way out of the norm-referenced box. It just doesn't work in this type of assessment."
Gathering information to help you write solid individualized education programs for students who are nonverbal takes time, but it isn't impossible. The IEP team needs to look at various assessments, observe the student in different environments and get feedback from parents and teachers. By getting the big picture on how the student functions academically and behaviorally, the IEP team can set realistic goals for the student and monitor progress more accurately.
Rising to the challenge
Zbornik said this problem typically comes to the fore at the three-year evaluation. "The child has already been diagnosed as mentally retarded and/or autistic and declared eligible for special education when they were very young. At the three-year evaluation, sometimes psychologists just say the student is still MR and autistic,' he said. "We're concerned about measuring a student's present level of performance so we can write an appropriate IEP and see how they develop."
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Dorothy Zelvis, a speech language pathologist at LCPS, said even though they sometimes get information from outside evaluators saying a student is "untestable," she thinks every child can be assessed against developmental norms. "We're not just thinking about useful information for us, but for the parent," Zelvis said. "As professionals, we need to give them the big picture because they are also involved in the IEP planning." Assessment strategy Zelvis said the checklist talks about the foundation for social and emotional development and includes a discrete hierarchy of steps. "We use it to help target the next step for IEP goals based on what the child is lacking," she said. "A lot of this is also based on parent reports and observations." She said an in-depth evaluation is especially important for students with autism. "We're forming behavior plans between the ages of three and six-years-old and need to answer a lot of questions about whether they will get a functional curriculum or be in self-contained or inclusive classrooms," Zelvis said. Zbornik noted these students need to be observed frequently and in various environments. "I just tested a student with autism for his three-year evaluation and only had his attention for about 30 minutes at a time over the course of one month. On one day, he might not have been responding well," he said. "You can't look at a student with MR/autism the same way you would look at a kid with LD. You really have to look at it qualitatively and can't just look at how they perform on one day." Zelvis said you also have to consider some students will perform better in the morning than in the afternoon and some are taking medication that affects them. "You can't just get a slice of the child's life, you need the whole picture." Tap staff knowledge Zelvis said if there is a problem with communication, it permeates everything the child does academically and behaviorally. Zelvis said teachers can be a good source of how nonverbal students communicate and what motivates and reinforces them. |
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"We ask teachers about student's attention to tasks, any tasks they have the ability to better than others, what motivates these students and how they communicate that they are bored or unable to perform a task," she said.
Even though these students are nonverbal, they still communicate, and certain behaviors can indicate when want to be left alone or if the work is too hard.
"The major point of the whole process is finding out how they can tell us what they want so we can plug into their world," said Zbornik.
Assessment tips: Key areas which need to be considered during assessment.
Contact John Zbornik at (216) 227-5130.
This article appeared in Today's School Psychologist, August 2002 (Volume 6, Issue 1).
©2002 LRP Publications. Reproduced with permission.