Best Practices

Dr. Ozonoff made some very informative observations regarding the assessment of a child.  Some of the points she made are important for any type of assessment.  I think it is very important for educators to keep in mind that they should prepare themselves and the environment before they conduct an educational assessment.  Assessors should also be persistent, and not give up on the child if they don’t seem to understand what is being asked of them at first.  Assessors should also learn how the child processes things, and follow their pace.  One very important thing to keep in mind is to end on a good note.  If a child is assessed, and things end on a bad note, the next time someone assesses the child their testing may be affected by the history with testing.

An FBA is an important part of the assessment picture.  An FBA will help determine the antecedents and consequences for behavior, and the behavior plan that is then developed has the potential to improve the quality of life for not only the child, but the family as well.  There are several similarities in how we approach conducting an FBA and the assessments that are conducted to determine a diagnosis.  A BCBA conducting an FBA will interview parents and teachers to get a history of the behavior.  We will also ask the family what their concerns are, and find out which behaviors they are most concerned about and should be addressed first.  We also make sure to directly observe the child.  Direct observation is a very important aspect of conducting an FBA.

I also thought it was very interesting that Dr. Ozonoff said that when an examiner feels that a child is “untestable”, that usually means that the examiner is inexperienced.  I would agree with that completely.  That may mean that the examiner did not collect enough data on the history of the child.  Some children will need motivation during testing.  This could be earning tokens to exchange for a preferred item.  A few years ago a nueropsychiatrist asked me (the behavior therapist for the child at the time) to attend the testing sessions and follow the child’s reinforcement system during the testing.  This particular child was very bright, but had a lot of maladaptive behavior when working with people that did not know him.  This would be an example of a child that may be called “untestable”, when really he just needed the examiner to keep him engaged at all times, and reinforce his good behavior.

I think that clinical assessments, educational assessments, and classroom practice should all be approached in the same way.  The person working with the child should take the time to get to know the child, prepare themselves and the environment for the child, and strive for maximum results.  I also feel very strongly that everyone in the child’s life should have high expectations.  Children will only perform as well as they are expected to.  If a teacher, parent, or examiner expects a child to fail, it is more likely that they will.  We have to expect that a child will give everything that they can, and in turn they will succeed.