Areas of assessment_for_intelletual_disability

AREAS OF ASSESSMENT
FOR INTELLETUAL
DISABILITY
Dr (Mrs) P. Jeeva Shanthi
Assistant Professor,
Department of Special Education,
Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher
Education for Women, Coimbatore.

Introduction:
 The first indication of an intellectual disability is usually a child’s
physical & behavioral characteristics.
 Once an intellectual disability is suspected ,a formal evaluation &
assessment begins.
 The evaluation begins with a complete physical examination.
 The intellectual disabilities are defined by two major symptoms
1. Limitations in intellectual functioning
2. Limitations in adaptive functioning (include conceptual , social &
practical skills)

A thorough assessment involves the
following:
 Comprehensive medical exam
 Possible genetic and neurological testing
 Social & family history
 Educational history
 Psychological testing to assess intellectual functioning
 Testing to adaptive functioning
 Interviews with primary caregivers
 Interviews with teachers
 Social & behavioral observation of a child in natural environment.

Psychological assessment:
 Various types of standardized psychological tests are used during the
assessment of intellectual functioning.
 These tests assess intelligence(IQ),Learning abilities, and behavioral
skills.
 A standardized test is uniformly designed and consistently
administered.
 The test of intellectual functioning are designed to measure different
mental abilities are called IQ Tests.
 Previously an IQ score of 70 or below was the recommended cut
off score

 The IQ Scores falling between 85 & 115 are common
 Only 2.5% will be below a score of 130
 This group represents people with an unusually high IQ.They are
often termed “GIFTED”
 Historically,scores below 70 indicated an intellectual disability.
 The IQ tests has two parts
 one part measures verbal abilities
Other part measures spatial abilities (performance skills)

Some of the more commonly used IQ tests
:
 Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children:
 this is an IQ test for children ages 6 to 16.
The test has several subtests
There are verbal skills & spatial skills
The verbal skills include :vocabulary, comprehension,
math,& informational knowledge
The performance test include: picture completion &
arrangement; block design; object assembly; and coding.

Wechsler Pre-school and Primary scale of
intelligence:
 This is an IQ tests for children 3 to 7 years old.
 This test is organized like WISC.
 It measures two key aspects of intelligence:
• Verbal skills
• Spatial (performance) skills
• This test is not appropriate for individuals with severe
intellectual disability.

Wechsler adult intelligence scale(WAIS):
 This is an IQ tests for people over sixteen years of age.
 This is similar to the WISC
 The questions are more difficult since it tests adult
 It also measures the two areas of intelligence.

Stanford-Binet intelligence scale:
 This is an IQ tests for people between 2 to 23 years of age
 There are fifteen subtests for older groups
 Six subtests are administered to all the age groups
 These are vocabulary, comprehension ,pattern analysis ,
quantitative, bead memory,& memory for sentences.

McCarthy scales of children’s abilities:
 this test measures the cognitive & motor abilities of children
between the ages of 2.5 to 8.5 years old.
 There are six sections to this test
 These are: verbal scale ; perceptual-performance scale; quantitative
scale; memory scale; motor scale ;and general cognitive scale.
 This also tests individual ability scores.

Bayley scales of infant development:
 These tests are used to assess the development of infants and
toddlers ages 1-42 months
 This tests is also used with older children who are unable to take
age-appropriate tests.
 There are three sections :
Mental abilities- object performance;attention;non-verbal
communication & vocalization.
Motor abilities -fine & gross motor skills
Behavioural abilities –social &emotional behaviour

Tests of adaptive functioning:
 Tests of adaptive functioning evaluate the social 7 emotional
maturity of a child ,relative to his or her peers.
 They also help to evaluate life skills and abilities.
 Commonly used tests of adaptive functioning are described below:
 Woodcock Johnson Scales Of Independent Behavior:
This test measures independent behavior in children.

Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scale(VABS):
 This test measures the social skills of people from birth to 19 years
of age.
 This test is not administered directly to the child.
 Instead, questions are directed to primary caregivers and other
people familiar with the child
 The test contains four sections:
 communication
Daily living skills
Socialization and
Motor skills.

The Diagnostic Adaptive Behavior Scale:
 This tests measures adaptive behavioural skills
 These are three main categories of these skills:
Conceptual
Social and
Practical life skills
 This test is very helpful for determining the intensity and maximize
quality of life.

Cognitive assessments:
 Cognitive assessment or intelligence tests are used to determine a
child’s learning capability by identifying their cognitive strengths &
weaknesses.
 cognitive assessments with children require the administration of
standardized psychometric tools by experienced and accredited
psychologists
 These tools assess various areas of cognitive capacity.

Examples of assessing various areas of
cognitive capacity
 Verbal comprehension:
the ability to use a range of vocabulary to understand and
express general knowledge and explain concepts.
 Perceptual reasoning:
the ability to solve complex non- verbal problems.
 Working memory:
the ability to learn ,manipulate, and retain information
to complete new tasks.
 Processing speed:
the ability to quickly process & make judgments about
visual information.

Assessment tools:
 There are various cognitive assessment tools that are used for
various purposes and age groups are:
Wechsler Intelligence scales children- fourth edition
Stanford Binet – fifth edition
Wechsler Pre-school & primary scale of intelligence –
fourth edition.

Vocational assessment:
 Vocational assessment can be broadly defined as the “process of
obtaining information about a worker’s skills and performance in
order to makeappropriate training decisions”(Bellamy,Horner and
Inamn,1979)
 AIM OF VOCATIONAL ASSESSMENT:
The main aim of vocational assessment is to help in
assessing the individual’s skills and capacities and in pin-pointing the
strengths and weakness for eventual vocational programming.

Principles of vocational assessment:
 The vocational assessment must be ecological.
 Vocational assessment must include both quantitative & qualitative components.
 Vocational assessment should have predictive validity for dertermining the
individual’s ability to perform equally well in almost all instances.
 Vocational assessment instruments must reflect placement opportunities in present
and subsequent work setting.
 Vocational assessment should focus on work related skills and behaviors that
could impede the employment opportunities.
 He assessment must proceed from global to specific measures as the individual
prepares for gainful employment

Approaches of vocational assessment:
 The vocational assessments has two approaches
The traditional approach &
Contemporary assessment approach

Traditional approach to vocational
assessment:
 The traditional approach to vocational assessment mainly encompasses
psychological measurement approach, assessment of psychomotor skills and
work sample.
 Several psychological variables like intelligence, vocational aptitudes ,occupational
interests have been used to predict performance of Id child.
 The commonly used intelligence tests: Wechsler Adult intelligence scale –R, Binet
Scales and maze tests for predicting performance of Id workers.
 Psychological measures which have been used to assess are aptitude tests, like
Minnesota Paper Form Board , opinion tests, and picture interest inventory.
 The work sample approach represents the most popular assessment strategy used
in vocational assessment.

Contemporary approach to vocational
assessment
 Contemporary approach include three newly developed areas to
vocational assessment of Id persons
 These are assessment of adaptive behavior , survival skills and
process assessment approach.
 Adaptive behaviour refers to a wide range of appropriate behaviours
in diverse social contexts.
 The most commonly used adaptive behaviour are AAMD Adaptive
Behaviour Scale ,Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scale and
Vocational Behavior checklist.

Conclusions:
 Improving quality of life for handicapped individuals should be
overriding concern of all human service programmes & measures of
life-style.

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