Kelly Hahn SpED 414 Final Part I: Curriculum-Based Assessment (AEPS) Identifying Information Childs Name: Livia DOB:

June 10, 2010 Age: 03-05 Examiner: Kelly Hahn Location: MMO Angelfish classroom Date of Assessment: December 3, 2013 Date of Report: December 16, 2013 Test Used: AEPS, social-communication and social Language Used: English

Background Information In school, Livia is a vibrant child with a lot of energy. She seems to always be smiling and laughs at almost anything. Livia likes to manipulate blocks and connectors, as well as explore puzzles. Livia can also be found in the house corner making food for her teachers. She has some trouble with sitting still during group time and does not make a lot of eye contact with teachers or adults when they are close to her. Livia can be reluctant to clean up right away, but if asked multiple times, she may put things away. Livia has a baby sister whom she talks about all the time, as well as a best friend named Nora (name change). Three words that describe Livia would be energetic, independent, and inquisitive.

Livias family began to have concerns at the beginning of this school year (September 2013) with her lack of attention and very high-energy personality. They have recently begun going to occupational therapy for sensory matters. Livias parents have also had my cooperating teacher and myself fill out a form about Livias behavior for her psychologist that they have begun going to.

Method of Assessment The AEPS is a criterion reference assessment. It is separated into six separate assessmentsfine motor, gross motor, adaptive, cognitive, social-communication, and social. Within each mini assessment, there are domains that refer to specific skill areas. For example, social-communication has section A as social-communicative interactions and section B as production of words, phrases, and sentences. Within each sub-section, there are goals and objectives that are broken down and elaborated on. The AEPS is an observational tool used to assess children in all areas of growth and development. This assessment uses a scale of 0, 1, 2 to score each objective. There is a notes section that has a correlated key with responses such as assistance provided (A), parent/teacher report (R), and direct test (D). This assessment is typically done several times a year, using the first time as a baseline for the child. I chose two areassocial-communication and socialbecause these sections contained areas that I was concerned about in Livias growth and development. Some of the goals Livias parents and I wanted for her from the beginning of the semester were social-emotional based. Livias mother wanted to see her interact more with her peers and adults. As well, much of what I observed in the classroom throughout the semester had to do with transitions, large group activities, listening skills, and social skills. In the social-communication assessment, I observed

30 minutes of Livias speech interactions between others or herself, noting different uses of speech (verbs, adjectives, etc.). I also observed Livias skills in relation to using words to make commands or requests of others, using conversational rules, and establishing and varying socialcommunicative roles. In the social area assessment, I observed things like her interaction with others as play partners and in conflict-resolution situations. As well, I observed Livia in regards to her participation in large and small group situations, the ways in which she interacted with the environment around her, and knowledge of herself and others. These are the skills that best matched Livias needs in the classroom.

Results of Assessment Social-Communication: Livias raw score was 84 out of a possible score of 94. Her area percent score was 86%. Livia could do many of the skills in this assessment independently. These areas included production of words, phrases, and sentences (B) Although I received some of the scores by report, I have heard Livia use an example of each objective before. Within section B, Livia has emerging skills in using noun inflections such as irregular plural nouns. Another emerging skill area was in social-communicative interactions (A). Skills Livia is emerging in are things like using communication to express anticipation and emotions, using conversational rules (such as responding to others topic initiations), and establishing a variety of social-communicative roles (such as using voice to vary meaning). I noticed that the skills Livia is emerging in are more so related to the social area of assessment, which was more of a focus for Livia and her family. Livia is a generally bright child, which is why I am not surprised by her grammaticality.

Social: Livias raw score was 58 out of a possible score of 94. Her area percent score was 62%. Livia had one section that she could show independence in area C: knowledge of self and others. In this section, Livia demonstrated her ability to initiate in preferred activities and select activities to participate in. There were two objectives that Livia did not have. These included knowing her address and her telephone number. I am not concerned about these two areas, as many of the children in her class do not know that information. The rest of the assessment shows Livias continual emerging growth with social skills. Many of these skills relate to how Livia responds to peers in play and conflict-resolution. For example, one emerging skill Livia has is joining others in cooperative activity (2.1, section A). This is a skill that Livias family and I have established as a goal for Livia in the classroom. Another example is Livias emerging skills in watching, listening, and participating during large group activities. Some of the areas such as 3.1, 3.3, and 3.4 under section B (participation) required assistance for Livia to receive a score of 1. Livia would probably not be able to show these skills if she was not reminded of expectations at group time, however, because she received assistance and responded positively to that assistance, I gave her a score of 1. Overall, the social area of Livias development and growth is something Livias family and I have been focusing on since day one, which is why I am not surprised at the difference between the two assessment areas.

Summary Livias major strengths across the two AEPS developmental areas would be mostly related to the social-communication area of assessment. Livia had the most independent skills throughout the social-communication area, which, once again, was not a big surprise to me. She

always has had the ability to speak with a larger vocabulary and proper grammaticality. Like I said earlier, the one area in social-communicationsection A, social-communicative interactionswas the only section that she showed emerging skills. This makes sense in correlation to the results from the social area assessment because section A on this assessment refers more to the social skills of Livia. Livia is working on almost every section of the social area assessment. This was a previous concern of Livias parents, as well as myself. Livia is working on her interactions with peers, focus and attention in group, and her listening skills when following directions, responding to others, and participating in large and small group activities. Livia seems to really enjoy playing independently and doing what she wants to do. She has the language needed to communicate, however she struggles to use that language to communicate appropriately with others.

Part II: Summary and Critique Conclusions About The Child After collecting information on Livia over the past semester, I have discovered many skills and abilities she has. Livia is a very intelligent individual. She loves puzzles and can recite the alphabetas well as tell me something that starts with each letter! Livias language is more advanced than many of the children in the class. Something she struggles with, however, is using her language to communicate in appropriate ways with others. Sometimes she makes unintelligible noises or creates conversation that is unrelated to anything going on at the moment. Livia is a very friendly girl though! She knows all of her classmates names and rarely grabs from others. She will typically just give up a toy if another child wants it. Livia is very

independent which is a great quality. One thing Livia can work on is joining in on group situations and creating relationships with her peers. Overall, Livias limitations are focused on social interaction with others and her attention and listening skills, which may be heavily related to her newfound sensory processing issues.

Comparison and Critique of the Three Assessment Methods I thought the AEPS assessment tool was useful. It was very thorough and covered many skills that observers would need and like to see. However, I think this tool is also a little difficult to useespecially the social-communication log! There are a lot of objectives and skills to observe with a lot of detail. I understand how this assessment tool can be extremely useful, but I think I would need to practice many times with this tool before actually using it in an evaluation. The depth of the tool can be good because it really helps the observer figure out where the child is at, however, it can be difficult if you are not extremely familiar with the tool. I thought there were many strengths of this assessment tool for Livia. It helped show me particular areas that we would need to focus more on. The ECRS-R is also a very simple tool to use. I appreciated the clear organization and descriptions for each section. Although it is much to long to complete fully, I was able to pick out a few sections I wanted to focus on in regards to Livia. The ECRS-R is also a highly regarded environmental assessment tool. An environmental analysis was important for Livia because the classroom is a place that she interacts heavily in. Doing an environmental analysis helped me understand what triggers contribute to Livias social, emotional, and physical states during the learning process. Although Livia is not specifically diagnosed with any special needs, sensory processing is something her parents and doctors are focusing on. An environmental

assessment helped me understand different reactions Livia had to objects or routines in the classroom that may be sensory related. I think a limitation of this assessment is that it doesnt help give me a concrete answer to help Livia. It also doesnt help me figure out what exactly affects Livia in the classroomit only gives me a variety of things that could be fixed that are not specifically related to her. The family assessment was really helpful in finding out more about Livia and her home life. I thought it was also helpful that we did this assessment so early in the process. Knowing the information I learned that day was essential in completing my other two assessments with Livia. As well, it helped me build a stronger relationship with her in the classroom. For example, I found out who Livias best friend was during the family interview, which helped me understand some of the conversations I had with her later on. I have a hard time finding a limitation to family interviews. An obvious limitation is that your interview is based off the observations of parents, which can definitely be reliable, but may also be partially biased. I believe a home observation would be more beneficial, but for the purposes of this assignment, the family interview was more than helpful! The three methods used to gather assessment information all provided different, and helpful, information. The family interview provided a background into the life of Livia and her family. The environmental assessment gave ideas as to what could be changed in the environment to benefit Livia in the classroom. Finally, the AEPS gave me, the observer, more information on specific things Livia has no skill in, emerging skills in, or has independent skill in. Overall, I think the most beneficial assessment tools in regards to Livia were the family interview and AEPS. The environmental assessment was good, but I feel as though it had little to no impact on what could change to benefit Livia in the classroom.

Your Skill As An Examiner After working on this assessment project I have learned that I have great communication skills with others, especially parents. Working with Livias family helped me realize that Im not as nervous or inexperienced talking about peoples children. Livias mom has actually told two mentors in the ECE program how impressed she was with my knowledge and interpersonal skills. These compliments were amazing to hear, and I am proud of the work I have done with this family! Some skills I would like to work on for the future is assessing skills. I have done all of the assessments for this class, but I feel as though it can always be better. If I were to do a real assessment of a child I would have to be way more experienced and prepared for the assessments. I will hopefully work on these skills more if I continue my education in ECSE. Something that surprised me the most from this assignment was how many different techniques and assessments are available! I always wondered what the large boxes in the education library were until this yearthey were assessment kits. It was really great to learn about all of these different techniques so I can be familiar with them if they ever cross my path in the future.