By: Carmen Willings teachingvisuallyimpaired.com Updated November 3, 2017
It can be difficult to perform developmental, educational and psychological assessments on students who are blind or visually impaired using the standard tools. This is because the test must be adapted to make it accessible which can sometimes take away the validity of the test. The appropriateness of a test given to a student who is blind or visually impaired is dependent not only on the ability to adapt the test, but on the characteristics of the tests and if the questions are dependent on a students ability to reference or call upon visual information. Simply adapting a written test into a large-print, braille, or audio format or a computer CD-ROM does not in itself make a test accessible.
The test must first be in a format that the student uses. For example, if a student who is blind has not yet learned contracted braille, a reading test for the student needs to be in uncontracted braille. A student who has never taken a test using an audio format would be at a disadvantage if the test was provided only in an audio format. If a test is computer generated, as many tests are, a student needs to have some previous experience with the kind of software the test uses. If they use a screen reader or screen magnification software, care needs to be taken to ensure the software is compatible with the testing program. In some tests, complex items may not be convertible to an accessible format. In such a case, a similar question needs to be developed that measures the same skill as the original item. If an item is complex and cannot be adapted, it should be omitted, and the scoring of the test will need to be modified.
In Foundations of Education, Second Edition: Volume II Instructional Strategies for Teaching Children and Youths with Visual Impairments, Co-Author, Toni Heinze identifies the following guidelines that all formal tests should adhere to:
Comparisons are made for appropriate purposes;
Necessary modifications do not significantly change the content of the test; and
Interpretation is cautious, relying on an analysis of the student's performance, rather than only examining the test scores.
She points out that typically, students with visual impairments are not in the standardized population, and since the tests may need to be significantly modified, it could jeopardize the tests validity. The team must decide the purpose of the test and weigh the advantages and disadvantages to using any tool.
Developmental Assessments
The majority of assessments are based on the sequence of development for children without disabilities. The developmental sequence of attaining skills for students with visual impairments as well as those with additional disabilities may be different from those of sighted peers.
Callier-Azusa Scales, Editions G & H is for children ages 0-10. The Callier-Azusa Scale was designed specifically for students with deaf-blindness by an interdisciplinary team who had many years of experience with this population. It is also appropriate for assessing most students with severe handicaps and is especially valuable for students with visual and/or hearing impairments because of sub-scales relating to visual, auditory and tactile development.
The Developmental Assessment for Individuals with severe Disabilities or DASH-3 is a criterion-referenced measure of specific skill levels in persons of all ages who have severe and/or multiple physical/sensory disabilities, including persons with severe and profound intellectual disability (“mental retardation”) and autism spectrum disorders. The scales are also appropriate for individuals with mild to moderate disabilities; those who have single disabling conditions (e.g., individuals with visual impairment or paraplegia), and children who are functioning chronologically from birth to 6 years of age.
The Hawaii Early Learning Profile or HELP is widely recognized as a comprehensive, on-going, family centered curriculum based assessment process for infants and toddlers and their families. By VORT Corporation.
Oregon Project for Visually Impaired and Blind Preschoolers (OR Project) is available through the Southern Oregon Educational Services District. It is a comprehensive assessment and curriculum designed for use with children birth to six who are blind or visually impaired. In the 6th edition, it was significantly updated with the addition of 200 skill areas. Skill areas include: cognitive, language, compensatory, vision, self-help, social, fine motor, and gross motor.
The Brigance Diagnostic Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills, a criterion-referenced inventory that assesses, on an individual basis, a student's strengths or weaknesses in specific skill areas, is available in Large Print and Braille from APH.
Intelligence Tests
The Differential Ability Scales II (DAS-II) uses profile analysis to identify the child’s strengths and weaknesses, so the appropriate IEP goals, intervention strategies, and progress monitoring can be developed.
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale or WISC measures two aspects of intelligence in children: verbal and performance intelligence. Verbal intelligence includes aspects like vocabulary and comprehension; performance intelligence includes matrix reasoning and picture completion. The WISC requires between 65 – 80 minutes for administration and generates a score typical of most IQ tests. The average score is 100 with higher scores indicating higher than average intelligence and lower scores indicating lower levels of intelligence.
Woodcock-Johnson III: Tests of Achievement is available in a full-color large print and braille edition from APH. It is one of the most widely used diagnostic tests for ages 2 and up. It is commonly used to identify learning disabilities and for gathering details on individual strengths and weaknesses in preparation for educational planning.
Auditory Processing
The–Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP) was published in 1999 to meet the need for an assessment of reading-related phonological processing skills. Since its initial publication, the CTOPP has been popular with professionals in psychology and education. It has been used in many studies of reading and phonological processing in both typical and clinical populations.
The Developmental Test of Auditory Perception (DTAP) is a battery of 5 item sets that measure different, but interrelated, aspects of auditory perception. The comprehensive battery is designed to assess auditory perception without invoking higher order verbal reasoning or extensive memory capacity. Items are presented via a CD to standardize presentation of the language item sets and to include various nonlanguage sounds as well. The DTAP uses a simple response format easily understood and accommodated even by children in the primary grades. Using various language-related as well as non-language-related sounds, pairs of stimuli are presented and examinees indicate whether the pairs are the same or different.
The Test of Auditory Perceptual Skills (TAPS) measures what a person does with what is heard, and is intended to be used along with other tests as part of a battery. It is designed to be used by speech-language pathologists, audiologists, school psychologists, and other testing professionals.
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TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC: An Activities Based Curriculum for Teaching Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired
$50.00
Written specifically for fellow itinerant Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI’s), this book consists of over 400 activities and topic areas of discussion for instructing students in the Expanded Core Curriculum. The activities are age-neutral and multi-sensory and therefore can meet the needs of the broad range of students served on an itinerant caseload serving. The activities can be individualized to the students various learning modalities and scaffold in order to challenge students but ensure success. Select those activities that align with the student’s learning objects based on the student’s unique visual needs and academic and developmental level.
The core activities listed in the Activity section can be adapted to each thematic unit. These include:
Object Characteristic Activities
Quantity & Number Concepts
Time Concept Activities
Environment & Job Awareness Activities
Listening Skills Activities
Reading Foundation Activities
Reading Fluency Activities
Braille Basics Activities
Writing Activities
Tactual Efficiency Activities
Developing Skillful Hands Activities
Visual Efficiency Activities
Optical Device Instruction Activities
Recipe Activities
In addition to the core activity areas, each of the 32 Thematic Units incorporates additional unique ECC concepts and skills providing you with a years’ worth of activities. These units are cyclical and can be used repeatedly to help students build on prior knowledge and develop a deeper understanding of concepts. Each unit includes suggestions for activity adaptation associated with the unit. These include lists of objects, possible community based experiences, environmental print, poems, children & young reader books, children's songs, pop culture songs, movies, and websites.
Unique Concepts within the Units include:
Self Advocacy Activities (e.g. advocating for safe classroom, presenting to class on visual impairment, requesting help and more)
Social Skills Activities (e.g. Being bullied or teased, giving and receiving compliments, body language, "I" messages when upset and more)
Recreation & Leisure Activities (e.g. exploring interest areas, getting involved in clubs and sports, playing games, and more)
O&M Support Activities (e.g. Suggestions for community based experiences, dog guide information, locations in the school, bioptics, ride sharing, traffic signs, and more)
Independent Living Skill Activities (e.g. chores, being responsible, using tools, recipe suggestions, hygiene, staying healthy, labeling foods and products, and more)
Sensory Efficiency Activities (e.g. unique sensory experiences related to the unit, unique optical device activities, and more)
Compensatory Activities (e.g. organizing materials, study habits, and many unique concepts related to the unit)
Career & Vocational Activities (e.g. job awareness, completing applications, job task suggestions, and more)
Although the intended audience of this resource is fellow Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments, special education teachers may find these activities beneficial to the students in their classrooms as the activities are multisensory and include life skills and concepts needed by all students. This resource, however, is not intended to take the place of a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI). Readers are advised to consult their own TVI’s regarding instruction in the ECC and the unique visual needs of the student’s served in their programs.
Note: This curriculum is a digital pdf download. Once you make your purchase you will be directed to an order confirmation page where you will find the download link. This download will also be included on the receipt sent to the email address you provide. The pdf download can be found directly under the order number.
Each download is intended for single instructor use per copyright. Thank you for helping me preserve the content and not distributing copies to third parties.
Product details
Digital pdf download: 364 pages (11 pt font)
Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
Visual Efficiency & Magnifier Fluency Grab & Go ECC Supplements
$20.00
This workbook is a pdf download that can be printed on demand for use with students. It contains five different types of worksheets for developing visual motor skills and near magnifier fluency skills particularly with the use of a video magnifier. As a supplement to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to each of the 32 ECC Thematic units. The worksheets, along with a list of environmental print for each thematic unit, are designed to help students refine their visual motor skills while reinforcing ECC concepts presented in the thematic units.
Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheet Details:
Digital pdf download: 210 pages
Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
