According to Patricia “most
important instrument is the evaluator and their expertise not the specific tool”. The evaluator has the opportunity to see the
student in his or her natural setting and interact with him. At the end the
evaluator will be the one writing the report and recommending services for the
individual. It is important to the evaluator to interact with the student to
get a feel of what the student is capable of doing. Some evaluator will write a report only with
secondary information. As much it is
important to get the parents and team members input it is al crucial to see the
student as well.
It is extremely important to have
data collecting by various personnel because the child might display some
behavior with one person not with another.
For example a child might throw foot at his sibling during dinner but if
the parents are not involve in the process the school will not be aware of that
behavior. Anyone who comes in contact
with the student should participate in the process. It is important to have a team in place
because you will be able to divide the work and able to bounce ideas off each
other.
A functional behavior assessment
(FBA) is crucial when dealing with students on the spectrum. The student might display odd behaviors that
cannot be explained unless an assessment is done. Once the assessment is in
place the team will collect the data to make sure if the current plan is
working or not. If the plan is working the team should notice a decrease in
behavior within a few weeks of taking data. Sometimes the team will have to go back
and make changes because according to the data it is not working. The team
should always write up a summary explaining the finding of the FBA and what
they are planning on doing next. Also
validity is important as well. One must be
able to measure the result.
Observation is a key function specialist
uses when trying to find information about a particular student. It may be formal (sit across student ask
certain question) or informal by watching the student playing in his natural
setting and interacting with others. One could tell some of the skills the
student is lacking just by watching. We
all know students on the spectrum don not like to socialize and have difficulty
with eyes contact and are repetitive. Other
people who work with the child may have some input as well. For example the child might not want to stay
in his seat during a car ride; the bus driver could be the one to inform the observer
about this particular behavior. Parents
and sibling could be an important source as well because they spent more time
with the child and they are more likely to see a behavior that everyone else
have not seen. The specials should not
rely only on standardize test, they should use other form of testing as well.
Patricia made a valid point “because
the child has language that does not mean he can use it to request his needs
and wants”. I could have not agreed more with that statement. The specialist should see how the kid is
during transition because he or she might have difficulty shifting from one
task to the next. Some might requires an
activity schedule or pecs to make it to the assignment. He might not be able to keep us with the classroom
pace. I work with a six year old boy, he
has plenty of language but he tends to lose it once the demand increases. He does not know how to ask for help, we need
to prompt him to advocate for himself. It is getting so bad we have to
incorporate a social story for him and go over before he begins working and encourage
him to ask for help or break when needed.
The student might have difficulty responding to instruction given by others
,get needed items, wait and affirming/rejection yes or no. These are some skills the student should be
working on or exposing to. We all know how
difficult it could be to have a student waiting in line to get lunch or at the
doctor’s office. The specialist should
start with a few seconds and gradually increase the time.
Always remember for every behavior
we got rid of a new one should be teach that serve the same purpose. “Replacement behavior should be a high
priority goal on the IEP”. Many of these
children have maladaptive behavior it is important to teach them functional
behavior.
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