PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

GROUP 2
MEMBERS NAME
SADIA KHAN
HAFSA SHAKEEL
MARIYAM ASLAM
AZAAN SHAFIQ
SHAMOON KHAN
TO MA’AM MUNTAHA ZIA

TEST FOR SPECIAL POPULATION

INFANT & PRESCHOOL TESTING
 By Sadia Khan
The first five years of life—the span of time referred to as the preschool period —is a time of profound
change. Basic reflexes develop, and the child passes a number of sensorymotor milestones, such as
crawling, sitting, standing, walking, running, and grasping. Usually between 18 and 24 months, the child
becomes capable of symbolic thought and develops language skills. By age 2, the average child has a
vocabulary of more than 200 words. Of course, all such observations about the development of children
are of more than mere academic interest to professionals charged with the responsibility of assessment.

Objectives of Preschool Assessment

Preschool assessment involves a variety of efforts, from comprehensive developmental assessment to
the screening of high-risk children. The general objective of assessment in educational settings is to
make appropriate decisions about children that will facilitate their educational and psychological
development. Among the various purposes for testing preschool children might be:

1) Screening of children at risk – here the concepts of false positive and false negative are
particularly relevant.
2) diagnostic assessment to determine the presence or absence of a particular condition, often for
the purpose of establishing eligibility for placement in a special program, as well as to formulate
intervention and treatment recommendations.
3) Program evaluation, where the test results are used to document and evaluate specific
programs.

Assessment approaches.
There seem to be five major approaches within the tradition of psychometric testing:

A. Interviews of the parents and teachers are probably the most widely used method to assess the
social-emotional functioning of the preschool child. Interviews, particularly of the child directly,
are quite limited from a psychometric point of view, often yielding low reliability and validity.
B. Direct behavioral observation is considered to be one of the most valuable assessment methods
for young children. In part, this is due to the fact that young children are ordinarily not bothered
by observation as are older children, and in part due to their limited verbal repertoire. When
such observation is done systematically, the interobserver reliability can be substantial and a
number of such observation systems where behavior can be coded have been developed.
C. Rating scales, filled out by the parent and/or teacher are relatively inexpensive and require little
time to complete and to score. These scales are limited by three types of errors that produce
unwanted variation in scores or error variance. The first is interrater variance – different people
filling out a rating scale for the same child will often give different ratings. Usually, this is not a
reflection of the poor reliability of the scale, but rather reflects the different perspectives that
different people have. A second source of error is setting variance. The parent sees the child at
home, while the teacher sees the child at school. These different settings may elicit different
behaviors. Finally, there is temporal variance, which reflects the effect of taking a measure at
one time as opposed to.
 D. Projective techniques such as producing drawings or story telling in response to a specific
picture are also used. These techniques are severely limited for preschool children. Most require
a fair degree of verbal skills that the child does not yet possess. For example, in producing a
drawing the child is asked to tell what the drawing represents, what feelings are associated with
the drawing, etc. Often the drawings and other productions of young children are either very
limited or not easily interpretable.
E. Traditional tests that have been normed on children this age. The literature seems to be
dominated by four such tests: the Stanford-Binet, the WPPSI, the McCarthy Scales of Children’s
Abilities, and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children.

Tools of Preschool Assessment

 The tools of preschool assessment are, with age-appropriate variations built into them, the
same types of tools used to assess school-age children and adults.
 Individual tests, such as the Stanford-Binet;
 multidimensional batteries; a wide variety of measures exist in this category, many covering
such domains as fine and gross motor movement, language, cognition, self-help, and personal-
social-emotional aspects;
 Adaptive skill assessment measures, which focus on specific skills;
 Adaptive process measures; these involve the assessment of complex competencies (e.g., eye
contact) that can simultaneously involve social, adaptive, and cognitive abilities.
 Checklists and rating scales

A checklist is a questionnaire on which marks are made to indicate the presence or absence of a
specified behavior, thought, event, or circumstance. The individual doing the “checking” of the boxes on
a checklist may be a professional (such as a psychologist or a teacher), an observer (such as a parent or
other caretaker), or even the subject of the checklist himself (or herself).

A rating scale define as a form completed by an evaluator (a rater, judge, or examiner) to make a
judgment of relative standing with regard to a specified variable or list of variables.

Two commonly used checklists and rating scales are the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and
the Connors Rating Scales-Revised (CRS-R). The CBCL comes in versions appropriate for use with
children from ages 1½ to 5 years (CBCL/1½ 5).

A syndrome may be defined as a set of co-occurring emotional and behavioral problems. The CBCL has
an 8-syndrome structure, with syndromes designated as

a. Anxious/ Depressed
b. Withdrawn/Depressed
c. Somatic Complaints
d. Social Problems
e. Thought Problems
f. Attention Problems
g. Rule-Breaking Behavior
h. Aggressive Behavior
First Impressions Assessment:
An Apgar number, The Apgar number is actually a score on a rating scale developed by physician
Virginia Apgar. This is rapid method of evaluating newborn infants and determining what immediate
action, if any, is necessary. As first presented in the early 1950s, the Apgar evaluation is conducted at
one minute after birth to assess how well the infant tolerated the birthing process. The evaluation is
conducted again at five minutes after birth to assess how well the infant is adapting to the environment.
Each evaluation is made with respect to the same five variables; each variable can be scored on a range
from 0 to 2; and each score (at 1 minute and 5 minutes) can range from 0 to 10. The five variables are
heart rate, respiration, color, muscle tone, and reflex irritability, the last measure being obtained by
response to a stimulus such as a mild pinch.

Psychological tests:
By age 2, the child enters a challenging period for psychological assessors. Language and conceptual
skills are beginning to emerge, yet the kinds of verbal and performance tests traditionally used with
older children and adults are inappropriate.

Tests such as the WPPSI-III, the SB5, and others may be used to gauge developmental strengths and
weaknesses by sampling children’s performance in cognitive, motor, and social/behavioral content
areas.

Infant intelligence tests have also proved useful in helping to define the abilities—as well as the extent
of disability

Other Measures:
Many other instruments and assessment techniques are available for use with preschoolers, including
interviews, case history methods, portfolio evaluation, and role-play methods. There are instruments,
for example, to measure temperament, language skills, the family environment in general, and specific
aspects of parenting and care giving. Drawings may be analyzed for insights they can provide with
respect to the child’s personality.

An example of the latter is the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory, a 38-item behavior checklist that may
be helpful in identifying sexually abused children as young as 2 years.

In sum, many different types of instruments are available for use with preschoolers to help evaluate a
wide variety of areas related to personal, social, and academic development.

The test interpreter can say with authority more about the future performance of an infant whose
performance was either profoundly below age expectancy or significantly precocious. Still, infancy is a
developmental period of many spurts and lags, and infants who are slow or precocious at this age might
catch up or fall back in later years. Perhaps the great value of preschool tests lies in their ability to help
identify children who are in a very low range of functioning and in need of intervention.

Some general problems:

Testing preschoolers can represent quite a challenge. Most preschool children cannot read, and written
self-report measures, which probably represent the most common testing approach, cannot be used.
Their verbal and visual-motor response capabilities are also restricted – thus a preschool child may be
unable to tell a story in response to pictures. Similarly, their information-processing skills may be quite
limited and their responses to questions may reflect such limitations. Preschool children may not be
familiar with a “testing” situation and may be fearful and apprehensive. Preschool children also have a
relative inability to understand the demand characteristics of the testing situation, and may not
understand the need to be motivated in answering “test” questions. They may find the smiles of the
examiner not particularly reinforcing, and it may be difficult to assess whether the child lacks the ability
to answer correctly or does not wish to cooperate.

Lowered reliability
One of the general findings is that the reliability of tests administered to young children is often quite
low, even though the same instrument with older children will achieve quite respectable levels of
reliability

Some common used of Infant & Preschool Psychological Assessments:

Here are some common types of psychological assessments used with special infants and preschool
children:

 Developmental Milestones Assessment:

These assessments focus on evaluating whether a child is meeting age-appropriate developmental
milestones in areas such as motor skills, language development, and social interaction. They help
identify delays or developmental concerns.

 Observational Assessments:
Child psychologists and developmental specialists often conduct structured observations of the
child's behavior in various settings, such as at home or in a preschool. Observational assessments
can provide valuable insights into the child's social interactions, play skills, and behavior.

 Parent/Caregiver Questionnaires:
Parents and caregivers are asked to complete questionnaires about their child's behavior,
development, and social interactions. These questionnaires can provide important information
about the child's functioning at home.

 Play-Based Assessments:
Play is a crucial component of early childhood development. Psychologists may use play-based
assessments, where they observe how a child interacts with toys and games to gain insights into
their cognitive, social, and emotional development.

 Standardized Developmental and Screening Tools:

 Certain standardized tools are designed for use with infants and preschoolers. Examples include the
Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) and the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST). These
tools are used to assess developmental milestones and screen for potential delays.

 Language and Communication Assessments:

Assessments such as the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) are used
to evaluate a child's language and communication skills. These assessments may involve assessing
vocabulary, language comprehension, and expressive language.

 Social-Emotional Assessments:
Specialized assessments like the Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional (ASQ:SE) focus
on the social and emotional development of young children. They help identify potential behavioral
and emotional concerns.

 Cognitive Assessments:
Some cognitive assessments, such as the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, are
adapted for use with very young children to assess their cognitive abilities and intellectual
development.

 Neuropsychological Assessments (in specific cases):

In cases where there may be concerns about neurological development or conditions like autism
spectrum disorder, neuropsychological assessments may be conducted to evaluate cognitive, motor,
and sensory functioning.

Testing Of The Mentally Retarded

Population:
By Hafsa Shakeel
Testing:
The goal of testing is to understand an individual's strengths and challenges, allowing for appropriate
support and intervention.These tests aim to evaluate the person's intellectual functioning, language
skills, memory, problem-solving abilities, and adaptive behaviours in various life domains.

Mental Retardation:
It is defined as subaverage intellectual functioning that exists concurrently with deficits in two or more
of the following adaptive skill areas: communication, self-care, home living, social skills, community use,
self-direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure, and work.

Cause Of Mental Retardation:

The three major problem of mental retardation are Down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, and fragile
X. There are various known causes of mental retardation: Various genetic disorders like Down's
Syndrome. Certain maternal infections (rubella)during pregnancy.

Testing For Mentally Retarded Population:

Testing for intellectual disabilities, formerly referred to as mental retardation, is typically conducted
through standardized assessments administered by trained professionals, such as psychologists or
special education specialists.

Commonly used tests include:

1. Wechsler Intelligence Scales: Such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) or
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), assess general cognitive abilities,
including verbal comprehension, working memory, and perceptual reasoning.
2. Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales: Evaluate adaptive functioning in daily activities,
communication, socialization, and motor skills.
3. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales: Measure cognitive abilities across various domains,
providing an IQ score.
4. Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development: Assess developmental milestones in
young children.
5. Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities: Evaluate cognitive abilities and
intellectual functioning.
6. Behavioural Assessment Scales: Like the Achenbach System of Empirically Based
Assessment (ASEBA), help assess behavioural and emotional functioning.

It's important to note that these tests should be administered by trained professionals, such as
psychologists or special education specialists, and results should be interpreted with consideration for
the individual's unique strengths and challenges. Additionally, terminology has evolved, and using
respectful language, such as "intellectual disability," is recommended.

Testing for physical Disabilities population

By Mariyam Aslam

Define a physical disability?

A physical disability is a limitation on a person’s physical functioning, mobility, dexterity or stamina.
Other physical disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living. It is a long-term’
negative effect on an individual’s ability to do normal daily activities.

Categories of disability
There are common three categories of physical disabilities.

 Vision impairment
  Hearing impairment
 Physical or motordisabilities

Challenges of testing the handicap

Individuals with disabilities present a number of challenges with regard to tests. Because such
disabilities can involve a wide range of conditions, Such as mental retardation, visual impairments,
Chronic health problems, and so on, the challenges are numerous and varied. For example, Typical
paper-and-pencil inventories require a Fair degree of hand and finger dexterity, so often clients cannot
complete these without assistance. Often, disabilities can result in poor self-esteem, Ahigh degree of
frustration, depression, denial, Poor adjustment, and other psychological aspects that may interfere
with and/or color the results Of a psychological test.

These authors indicate that with disabledChildren there are four major goals of testing:

(1)To predict future status, (2) to prescribe an appropriate treatment, (3) to assess progress
and/orProgram evaluation, and (4) to develop a comprehensive data base across time and/or
acrossChildren.

Wide range of impairment

Even within one category of disability, there may be a wide range of impairment. For example,
individuals who are motor impaired and are in a wheelchair, may have no upper body limitations, mild
limitations, or moderate to severe limitations. In a testing situation, the degree of limitation would
dictate whether the individual can respond on a standard answer sheet, requires additional breaks, or
uses special equipment. Thus, testing of rehabilitation clients requires a thorough knowledge and
awareness of that client’s particular abilities and disabilities and a sensitivity to individual differences.

A multivariate approach
There is a strong suggestion in the literature that a multivariate approach is best in the testing of
disabled individuals. One aspect of such an approach is to useInstruments that yield subscale scores
(such as the MMPI, the WAIS, etc.). Another approach is to use a battery of instruments, so that
hypotheses generated by one test result can be corroborated in other test results.

Testing for Physical abilities population:

THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED:
Tests that are used with theVisually impaired seem to fall into one of fourCategories:

(1) tests that were developed for the

General population of normally sighted individuals and are simply used with the visually impaired;

(2) tests developed for the general population,

But with specific norms for the visually impaired;

(3) tests adapted for the visually impaired by the

Use of braille, large print, or other procedure;

(4) tests developed specifically for the visually

Impaired.

Visual nature of testing

Many problems complicate the assessment of the visually impairedPerson. A major problem is that most
tests involveSight because of the visual nature of the test items themselves, such as on the WAIS-R, or
becauseOf the way the measure is administered underStandard conditions, as with the printed
bookletOf the MMPI. (There are braille versions of theMMPI, e.g., O. H. Cross, 1947.)

THE Hearing IMPAIRED:

The Wechsler tests and the hearing impaired
The Wechsler Performance Scales are the most popular test for assessing deaf children and adults and
seem to demonstrate adequate reliability and validity with deaf subjects.

TheWISC-Rand deaf children

TheWISCR Performance scale (PS) is probably the Intelligence test to usedmost often bypsychologist
assessing deaf child.

Stanford Achievement Test special Edition

Stanford Achievement Test special Edition for use hearing impaired students.TheSATHIis a group test to
be administered in the classroom using whatever method of communication is normally used.

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

Another cognitive test that has been useful with the hearing impaired is the PPVT, Which consists of a
series of plates with drawings on them. A word is given by the examiner and the child identifies the
corresponding drawing.

PHYSICAL-MOTOR DISABILITIES
Nature of physical disabilities. From a psychometric perspective, physical disabilities present a much
more heterogeneous set of conditions, Some requiring no particular modifications in test or test
administration and others presenting substantial challenges. Even within a particular disability, clients
may differ dramatically from each other in their test-taking capabilities. Three of the major categories of
physical disabilities that can present challenges in the testing situation are those due to neuromuscular
diseases, major physical injuries, and severe chronic health problems. Neuromuscular diseases include
conditions such as cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy. These often involve troublesome involuntary
movements, clumsy voluntary movements, impaired mobility, and sometimes evidence of brain injury as
reflected in Impairments in verbal skills and in motor coordination. Physical injuries can also be quite
varied and may involve paralysis due to spinal-cord injury or orthopedic disabilities, such as injuries to a
limb. Finally, chronic health problems can range from cancer to severe allergies to conditions such as
diabetes and asthma.
The Ostomy Adjustment Scale
Some instruments such as the Wechsler tests or the MMPI are designed for a rather broad segment of
the Population – for example, all “normal individuals who are at least 16, or all psychiatric patients.
Nonetheless, they can be quite useful with specific populations, such as the physically disabled. Some
instruments, however, are designed specifically for a target population, a somewhat narrower segment;
an example of this is the Ostomy Adjustment Scale (Olbrisch, 1983).

Neuropsychological Tests
If your condition affects other areas of Your body, you may benefit from a Neuropsychological
evaluation. This can help show how your sensation, coordination, perception, and motor speed are
affected by your illness. It can also show how problems with attention, concentration, or inappropriate
social behavior affect your everyday life.

Candidates with visual disabilities

Braille versions of tests are available from some publishers but it should be remembered that many
candidates with a visual impairment will have little or no proficiency in Braille. Other formats for tests
might include audio versions such as audio tape, computer simulated speech or amanuensis (when
someone reads out the test to the candidate and writes down the answers for them). It should be noted
that all of these methods are likely to require more time for the test both for the candidate and the
administrator.

Candidates with a motor impairment

Many Candidates with a motor impairment would find it impossible to fill in a small Circle as required
on most answer sheets so other ways of indicating the answer may be required e.g. using a computer or
specialized equipment, or providing the answers orally and getting someone else (possibly the
Administrator) to complete the answer sheet for them. The time taken to answer is likely to be affected
by the method of response so adjustments to the time allowed should be made. The administrator
should also be aware of Issues of fatigue; very long tests and very long test sessions should be avoided.

Name of Scales which used for physical disabilities population

 The Wechsler tests
 Braille versions of tests
 The WISC-R
 Stanford Achievement Test special Edition
 Neuropsychological Tests
 The Ostomy Adjustment Scale
 The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

Adaptive testing
 Shamoon khan

Adaptive testing or computer-adaptive testing (CAT) is a method for administering tests that
dynamically adapts to the examinee's performance level, varying the difficulty of presented items
according to the examinees previous answers. For this reason, it has also been called tailored testing.

How CAT works:

CAT successively selects questions so as to maximize the precision of the exam based on what is known
about the examinee from previous questions.[1] From the examinee's perspective, the difficulty of the
exam seems to tailor itself to their level of ability. For example, if an examinee performs well on an item
of intermediate difficulty, he will then be presented with a more difficult question. Or, if he performed
poorly, he would be presented with a simpler question. The basic computer-adaptive testing method is
an iterative algorithm with the following steps:[2]

1. The pool of available items is searched for the optimal item, based on the examinee's
current ability estimate

2. The chosen item is presented to the examinee, who then answers it correctly or incorrectly

3. The ability estimate is updated, based upon all prior answers

4. Steps 1–3 are repeated until a termination criterion is met

Advantages:
Adaptive tests can provide uniformly precise scores for most test-takers.[2] In contrast, standard fixed
tests almost always provide the best precision for test-takers of medium ability and increasingly poorer
precision for test-takers with more extreme test scores.
An adaptive test can typically be shortened by 50% and still maintain a higher level of precision than a
fixed version.[1] This translates into a time savings for the test-taker.
Disadvantages:
The first issue encountered in CAT is the calibration of the item pool. In order to model the
characteristics of the items (e.g., to pick the optimal item), all the items of the test must be pre-
administered to a sizable sample and then analyzed. To achieve this, new items must be mixed into the
operational items of an exam (the responses are recorded but do not contribute to the test-takers'
scores), called "pilot testing," "pre-testing," or "seeding."[2] This presents logistical, ethical, and security
issues. For example, it is impossible to field an operational adaptive test with brand-new, unseen items;
[4]

CAT Components:
There are five technical components in building a CAT (the following is adapted from Weiss & Kingsbury,
1984[1] ). This list does not include practical issues, such as item pretesting or live field release.
1. Calibrated item pool
2. Starting point or entry level
3. Item selection algorithm
4. Scoring procedure
5. Termination criterion