Module 1: Navigating Assessments for Students with Complex Needs
Type of Assessments
Students with complex needs have a variety of assessments in their student file. These assessments can come from a number of sources including:
- Pediatrician and other medical reports
- Psychology report or neuropsychological assessment
- Speech and language pathologist assessment or report
- Occupational therapy assessment or report
- Physiotherapy assessment or report
- Vision assessment
- Hearing assessment
- Previous IEP’s or report cards
- Inclusion Outreach’s student visit reports
- Reports from other provincial outreach programs
Two general categories of assessment are standardized tests and criterion referenced assessments. In general, criterion referenced assessments offer more relatable information for students with complex needs than the standardized tests. The following highlights characteristics of each type:
Standardized Tests
- Compare individual performance to an average
- Described in terms of percentiles
- Most students have experienced a standardized test in their educational career
- Examples: Woodcock Johnson, PM Benchmarks for Reading
Criterion Referenced Assessments
- Tell us what the student is or isn’t doing. No comparison to an average, and include things like checklists, surveys, and observational scales
- Look at things in absolute terms. Are they demonstrating the skill or not?
- Look at skills in a concrete way. Can the student hold a pencil with a pincer grasp? Do they say five words?
- Examples: Cognitive Stepping Stones, Language Comprehension Checklist