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Deciding on formal or informal testing
Deciding on formal or informal testing
When choosing an assessment, it is important to understand the characteristics and requirements of the assessment. Even within the category of Communication, assessments serve different purposes. It will be important for the team to ask the following questions to determine if the chosen assessment(s) meets the needs of the student and the team:
Will the assessment yield objective and discrete data for goal development?
Will the assessment provide information about the student's actual skills and knowledge?
Will the assessment provide information about the student's functional performance?
Will the assessment yield data that allows progress to be tracked?
Is the assessment appropriate for the characteristics of the student?
Is the assessment appropriate for the abilities of the student?
Can the assessment be completed with accommodations or modifications that won't invalidate or change the intent of what was assessed?
Is someone qualified and familiar with the student available to administer the assessment?
Can the assessment be administered within a reasonable amount of time?
Taken from Virginia Commonwealth Autism Center for Excellence
Formal Assessments
Formal Assessments
In order to provide the best, most targeted communication treatment program for a student with autism, a comprehensive formal assessment process in communication will likely need to be conducted. This formal assessment process should include a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP). A comprehensive formal assessment process will evaluate expressive, receptive, and pragmatic communication skills. This will aid the team in determining communication strengths and deficits.
Recommendations from the Community of Practice include:
Social Language Development Test - Elementary or Adolescent versions
CELF Metalinguistic
Virginia Commonwealth Autism Center for Excellence formal assessments page
Informal Assessments
Informal Assessments
Assessments provide information about the strengths and deficits of a student's communication abilities. However, formal assessments often take time to complete and may not yield appropriate information that leads to meaningful goal development for the student with ASD.
When developing communication goals, the educational team can supplement formal assessment results with informal assessment. These include screeners or other tools, such as interviews, inventories, or data collection measures.
Here are some suggestions from our committee:
Conversation samples and analysis
Narrative samples
Assessment of Social and Communication Skills for Children with Autism from Do Watch Listen Say
CELF-5 Pragmatic Profile
That’s Life! Social Language (resource book) assessment checklists
Compare results with Autism Spectrum Rating Scale.
Social Thinking Dynamic Assessment Protocol from Thinking About You Thinking About Me- Michelle Garcia Winner. Click here for a protocol available from the MN Low-Incidence project.
Informal pragmatic language tasks - a combination of Michelle Garcia Winner's social language dynamic assessment protocol with tasks included by Jill Kuzma, including a conversational analysis framework. Click here for a protocol that was developed by one of our committee members.
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