Best Practices

I very much enjoyed how Dr. Ozonoff talked about not only various tools to use with children during screenings and assessments, but she also discussed the assessment process itself.  Assessment with any child can be difficult, but especially with a child on the spectrum.  As with any situation, a child with Autism needs the testing environment and procedure to be organized and structured.  Dr. Ozonoff recommended using visual schedules, reinforces, teaching the give and take of testing, testing in multiple settings, and ending testing on a good note before exhaustion sets in.  So often educators can get wrapped up in completing countless assessments it's easy to forget that the testing environment should be set up very carefully.  She also mentioned that it is extremely important to use various modes of assessment as testing is a social skill and kids with Autism do not usually test well.  They do not have the ability to sit and focus on a test for a pro-longed period of time which is why including direct observations of the child in a natural setting and parent/teacher interviews (from those who have directly observed the child) are so crucial.

An FBA fits into the assessment procedure as it is an assessment itself.  As we discussed, an FBA determines the function of a behavior by looking closely at antecedents, specific behaviors, and consequences through direct observation of a child.  In my program, if a child with a possible behavior issue is assessed to determine eligibility and possibly placement, an FBA is done at this time as well to have a behavior plan set if and when the child begins in their new special education classroom.

The overall assessment process, including clinical and educational assessment, should help inform classroom practice.  In my program, these assessments are the first thing the classroom teacher gets when he or she discovers a child is coming to their classroom.  Because it's all they really know of the child, it should guide what is being taught in the classroom and how information is presented to the child.  Then, of course, as time goes on meetings and updated assessments/observations will occur to ensure that the most up-to-date and accurate information is known about the child at hand.