Assessments

It can be difficult as an educator to assist in the assessment process.  As a teacher I spend many hours interacting with my students and have a feeling that I know them pretty well after one year in this class room.  Although in my situation it is a little easier since all of my students have had a diagnosis from a professional for ASD.  Sometimes teachers try to diagnose students based on a past experiences or other information they are not well versed on.  From personal experience i have had this happen to me.  At a young age i had a elementary grade teacher try to diagnose me with ADHD and insisted that i be put on Ritalin.  After discussing this with my primary doctor he did some standardized testings and came to the conclusion that i do not have ADHD and i was a young hyper boy.  The teacher did not like this diagnoses and insisted again later in the year i had ADHD.  This was an issue that my parents had to deal with and made the school years stressful for both them and me as a young child.

This challenge, i am sure, is shared by many parents, and especially parents who are trying to acquire special need services for their children.  One approach i particularly enjoyed that the talker in the video mentioned was diagnosing in teams.  This approach helps make sure that mistakes are not being made.  As she mentioned the more head are in this process the better the chances are that a student will be diagnosed properly.  Educators and teachers are on the front lines with the students every day, and even though they not be experts in the diagnosis process or theories it is good to include their input.

Over all the video was very informative and enjoyable to watch.  I think the some of the major points of the video were clear and well represented.  There is no standardized test that can accurately measure ASD since it is such a large spectrum disorder.  Another good point was even if a test has accuracy there are usually some cons to the test (like length, duration, or ability to adapt) which can make the test difficult to perform.  In short, there is no perfect diagnostic tool.