No news yet on the job opening. I have heard lots of positive things though. One of my supervisors told me he felt I was definitely one of the top two interviews - so that was positive. I was also told by all three of my supervisors that the special education director was really impressed with me. So that is all good, right? I had hoped to hear the verdict this week - but maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part. The wait is really driving me and the hubs nuts though! :)
My assessment load continues to grow and grow. I think at last count I am around 36 for the year. I feel like I have gotten a GREAT experience though and I genuinely enjoy the assessment process so I happy with my work load.
8 weeks until graduation! So much to get done before then! I REALLY need to get to work on my paper for my project! I finally worked on it a but last weekend, but I need to start getting into the habit of working on it more frequently or I will be crying those last couple weeks!
Showing posts with label assessment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assessment. Show all posts
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Emotional Disturbance Eval
Today concluded my emotional disturbance evaluation. I am really happy with how it all came together.
Here is what my eval entailed:
- Observations (classroom, recess, testing)
- Interviews (foster parent, legal guardian, student, teacher)
- WISCV
-VMI (I am not really sure why we gave this - but my sup told me to!)
- WJII Achievement
- CBM - Oral reading Fluency
- BASC2 Student Self Report
- EDDT - Legal Guardian was the respondent.
-Review of records.
The only thing I wish that I had would be rating scales of some sort from the teacher and the current foster parent, but I didn't get them. :(
Today we met and I went over my book of a report. It was a pretty long meeting, but the legal guardian seemed genuinely interested in what he had done with him and what we planned to do with him. She was extremely complementary to me for making sure she understood each part of the testing. So that made me feel like a did a good job. All in all I think it was a great first go at a emotional disturbance. This report will go in my portfolio!
After the meeting the principal gave me a "fist-bump" and told me I did a good job and my supervisor had no issues with my presentation. Woot!
Here is what my eval entailed:
- Observations (classroom, recess, testing)
- Interviews (foster parent, legal guardian, student, teacher)
- WISCV
-VMI (I am not really sure why we gave this - but my sup told me to!)
- WJII Achievement
- CBM - Oral reading Fluency
- BASC2 Student Self Report
- EDDT - Legal Guardian was the respondent.
-Review of records.
The only thing I wish that I had would be rating scales of some sort from the teacher and the current foster parent, but I didn't get them. :(
Today we met and I went over my book of a report. It was a pretty long meeting, but the legal guardian seemed genuinely interested in what he had done with him and what we planned to do with him. She was extremely complementary to me for making sure she understood each part of the testing. So that made me feel like a did a good job. All in all I think it was a great first go at a emotional disturbance. This report will go in my portfolio!
After the meeting the principal gave me a "fist-bump" and told me I did a good job and my supervisor had no issues with my presentation. Woot!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
First initial Mental Retardation IEP
Last week I had the IEP for a student I did an initial evaluation for mental retardation (mr) for. I was crazy uncomfortable before the meeting. I mean, how do you tell someone for the first time that there baby is different and has a mean sounding label applied to them? All morning long (well, after Mr. Z left the house) I rehearsed aloud, practicing what I would say during each of the components of the IEP. Then when I got to the office, Mr. P demonstrated for me how he would go about saying it - which was extremely helpful. The meeting ended up going as well as it could. The parents definitely blanched a bit in response to the MR label. But after seeing their faces we talked for a bit about what the label does and doesn't mean. They seemed shocked, but at the same time expressed that the diagnosis made sense to them as they could see that this child was very different than his younger sibling. We actually ended up talking more about his placement change in the following school year as we recommended that he be moved to the moderate-severe program that the school district is starting. All in all, I am happy with how it went. Although I wish I didn't have a reason to.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Cute kids, sad kids, scared kids and sick kids
Since we returned from Christmas Break, it seems like things have been going full force. This week alone I worked on assessments for 6 kids! We are starting to refer some of the reading intervention non-responders for special education testing and then I've got a couple 3 years to do and a couple of parent requests for testing on top of that.
I've been doing a TON of testing with one little one who we are looking at for a possible learning disability. I think she is pretty cute, but I think I am the only one in the school who feels that way. She is very socially immature. As a 2nd grade student, she is behaviorally more like a kindergartner. She tends to crack me up though as you can tell she is used to getting her way at home and she believes she should be able to dictate or negotiate everything to fit her desire - this includes the testing setting. I used a sticker chart with her during testing because I wanted to keep her engaged - it worked. I also would end our testing time with 5-10 minutes of the two of us coloring together (I set a timer on the computer so she KNOWS when we are done). I swear though, she has fabulous negotiation skills. We would do a couple subtests and she would try, "hope about we do one more of these, then color?" And I would again have to remind her of the plan. LOL, I think she's pretty cute, and she obviously has some smarts in her too.
I am loading up on my viatmin c again as everyone seems sick. One of my counseling kids and one that I had been stalking in order to test where both sick this week. I have been trying to catch a 1st grade for a week and a half now and he finally showed up to school so I swooped in and pulled him to get his testing done. He was so sick. I tried to send him home but the poor little dude stole my heart and said, "I want to stay with you. I like spending time with you." so we did a little bit of work and then I sent him home. Poor baby.
I tried to meet with one of my counseling kiddos only to find out that she had been sent to the dental clinic for the morning. I knew my schedule was going to be extra tight this week so I figured I could just go check on her at the clinic and make sure she was having a good week and then pop out. I walk into the teachers lounge where the dental people were and see my little girl sitting in the waiting area. She avoids eye contact with me and is bouncing her foot up and down and looks completely freaked out. So I sit with her, and sit with her, and sit with her. She is only answering my attempts to get her to talk with one word answers so I am unsure if she even wants me there but I decide to stick with her. She ended up getting half way done then sent to lunch and told she needed to come back for more. So I walk with her to get her lunch and ask her if she wants me to stick around or leave and she finally speaks and says she wants me to stay. So stay I did. Poor pumpkin, I felt her pain.
My middle school kid threw me for a loop this week. He wasn't one I planned on testing, but I got to the site and heard my supervisor lamenting how she did not want to test him. She had interviewed him the day prior and he was off the walls ADHD. As she seemed like she had a lot of other things she needed to do and didn't particularly care to have to deal with the student I reminded her that she could make her intern do it :) So I took on the kid, not bothering to ask what the assessment was for (my assumption - since it was a middle schooler - was a three year re-eval for Specific Learning Disability). I gave the kid a wisc and he spoke a mile a minute, was very much in need of positive regard, and very unsure of himself. He cracked akward jokes throughout the testing and constantly wanted affirmation that he was doing ok. After the WISC was done we did the Beery VMI (which I haven't done in a YEAR!) followed by the BASC self report. This is where things really got depressing. The kidlet read some of the things outloud and some I helped him on and in the process it became pretty clear that he was a very depressed little boy, he had no friends and believed everyone hated him. He then got to the questions about hearing voices and shared with me that he did. I asked what the voices said to him and he looked down at his hands and said that they told him that he should end it as things would be better if he was gone. This of course led to me asking him if he had ever thought about listening to them and he shared with me that he had previously had two suicide attempts, but he currently did not have a plan/intention to hurt himself. Through some questioning on my part, he was able to list a couple reasons why he wouldn't want to hurt himself and we made a plan as to how he could get in contact with me or my supervisor if he needed to talk. *Yikes* poor kid! Such a sad little one, he's had such a hard life, full of pain and abandonment. :( Needless to say, once I found out why I was assessing him it all clicked: Emotional Disturbance
I've been doing a TON of testing with one little one who we are looking at for a possible learning disability. I think she is pretty cute, but I think I am the only one in the school who feels that way. She is very socially immature. As a 2nd grade student, she is behaviorally more like a kindergartner. She tends to crack me up though as you can tell she is used to getting her way at home and she believes she should be able to dictate or negotiate everything to fit her desire - this includes the testing setting. I used a sticker chart with her during testing because I wanted to keep her engaged - it worked. I also would end our testing time with 5-10 minutes of the two of us coloring together (I set a timer on the computer so she KNOWS when we are done). I swear though, she has fabulous negotiation skills. We would do a couple subtests and she would try, "hope about we do one more of these, then color?" And I would again have to remind her of the plan. LOL, I think she's pretty cute, and she obviously has some smarts in her too.
I am loading up on my viatmin c again as everyone seems sick. One of my counseling kids and one that I had been stalking in order to test where both sick this week. I have been trying to catch a 1st grade for a week and a half now and he finally showed up to school so I swooped in and pulled him to get his testing done. He was so sick. I tried to send him home but the poor little dude stole my heart and said, "I want to stay with you. I like spending time with you." so we did a little bit of work and then I sent him home. Poor baby.
I tried to meet with one of my counseling kiddos only to find out that she had been sent to the dental clinic for the morning. I knew my schedule was going to be extra tight this week so I figured I could just go check on her at the clinic and make sure she was having a good week and then pop out. I walk into the teachers lounge where the dental people were and see my little girl sitting in the waiting area. She avoids eye contact with me and is bouncing her foot up and down and looks completely freaked out. So I sit with her, and sit with her, and sit with her. She is only answering my attempts to get her to talk with one word answers so I am unsure if she even wants me there but I decide to stick with her. She ended up getting half way done then sent to lunch and told she needed to come back for more. So I walk with her to get her lunch and ask her if she wants me to stick around or leave and she finally speaks and says she wants me to stay. So stay I did. Poor pumpkin, I felt her pain.
My middle school kid threw me for a loop this week. He wasn't one I planned on testing, but I got to the site and heard my supervisor lamenting how she did not want to test him. She had interviewed him the day prior and he was off the walls ADHD. As she seemed like she had a lot of other things she needed to do and didn't particularly care to have to deal with the student I reminded her that she could make her intern do it :) So I took on the kid, not bothering to ask what the assessment was for (my assumption - since it was a middle schooler - was a three year re-eval for Specific Learning Disability). I gave the kid a wisc and he spoke a mile a minute, was very much in need of positive regard, and very unsure of himself. He cracked akward jokes throughout the testing and constantly wanted affirmation that he was doing ok. After the WISC was done we did the Beery VMI (which I haven't done in a YEAR!) followed by the BASC self report. This is where things really got depressing. The kidlet read some of the things outloud and some I helped him on and in the process it became pretty clear that he was a very depressed little boy, he had no friends and believed everyone hated him. He then got to the questions about hearing voices and shared with me that he did. I asked what the voices said to him and he looked down at his hands and said that they told him that he should end it as things would be better if he was gone. This of course led to me asking him if he had ever thought about listening to them and he shared with me that he had previously had two suicide attempts, but he currently did not have a plan/intention to hurt himself. Through some questioning on my part, he was able to list a couple reasons why he wouldn't want to hurt himself and we made a plan as to how he could get in contact with me or my supervisor if he needed to talk. *Yikes* poor kid! Such a sad little one, he's had such a hard life, full of pain and abandonment. :( Needless to say, once I found out why I was assessing him it all clicked: Emotional Disturbance
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
WISCing away!
I finished giving the WISC today to a little kidlet in the 2nd grade. I didn't actually need to do a cognitive assessment for her since she is already going to qualify for SLD using the RTI model, but I decided I wanted a good look at her ability. She is a really sloppy kid. Has a hard time keeping her thoughts and herself together. She seems to always be running like a maniac to something. I have a pretty good rapport with this little one since I have been working with her on her classroom behavior for the entire school year. She was pretty stoked to come in and test with me and I could tell she really gave it her best shot. I honestly didn't know what to expect for her IQ because she is amazingly low in academics. As a second grader she is only reading about 15 words in a minute, so she is very far below her peers. Even after 15 weeks of reading intervention, her rate of improvement in reading fluency is about .3 :( But, low in behold she is a completely average kid per her IQ of 97. She had really good perceptual reasoning skills, but her memory was her weakest link. It was below average, but not by a ton. So she is definitely a learning disabled kid, but it seems like there is something else amiss with her. Not sure what it is. She is so socially behind her peers, and even her motor abilities seem not quite right. I may have to try something else... maybe a rating scale? I guess though it really wont matter. She will qualify with what I have already done with her, but I am just so curious!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Cliffs of Insanity!
Ok so maybe my title is a bit overly dramatic, but man oh man have I been running this week! Yesterday I think could have been put down in my personal record book! I did 2 observations, 2 counseling sessions, assessed a kid, progress monitored, met with my behavior mod kids and met with a parent and a teacher. YIKES! I ended up having to run home, grab a sandwich and run to class. Today appears to be close to yesterdays busyness. It's just noon and I have already done a classroom observation, cognitive assessment, read with a kid and plugged them into a reading intervention group, and done RTI program evaluation on 3 kids in the Tier 3 program. Plus I got stuff ready for this afternoon's IEP. You know what is cool though? Even though I am so busy, I am thoroughly enjoying myself.
The kid I did the cognitive assessment on this morning is my first MR eval. He kept me on my toes as he required CONSTANT redirection and praise. I gave him the Weschler Nonverbal Inventory, and as we went through the Matrix subtest after every answer he gave he had to drum on the table with his hands and then give me a high five. He did stay pretty well engaged during the object assembly. He loved those puzzles, but I could hardly get anything out of him during the coding exercise. His fine motor skills were really poor and writing did not seem to go well. He would glance up at the key at the top of the page and then completely loose his place on the paper. Poor little dude. He was a drooler too. But, all in all for my first MR cognitive test, I think it went well. Although I at times had to break standardization with the kiddo, I think my results are valid. Overall, his FS was 70, so he is just barely on the line. I saw his adaptive scores were really low too.
The kid I did the cognitive assessment on this morning is my first MR eval. He kept me on my toes as he required CONSTANT redirection and praise. I gave him the Weschler Nonverbal Inventory, and as we went through the Matrix subtest after every answer he gave he had to drum on the table with his hands and then give me a high five. He did stay pretty well engaged during the object assembly. He loved those puzzles, but I could hardly get anything out of him during the coding exercise. His fine motor skills were really poor and writing did not seem to go well. He would glance up at the key at the top of the page and then completely loose his place on the paper. Poor little dude. He was a drooler too. But, all in all for my first MR cognitive test, I think it went well. Although I at times had to break standardization with the kiddo, I think my results are valid. Overall, his FS was 70, so he is just barely on the line. I saw his adaptive scores were really low too.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Tired Feet
Why did I wear heels today? That was a silly thing to do. Man it was a tough day back, a good day, but a little hard to get back into the routine. I started the day off trying to remember what I had completed assessment wise and what was still needing to be done. Note to self: Next year, write this stuff down so when you get back it is all outlined. I finished up a psych report and emailed it out to all necessary parties, then did a record review for a three year SLD review. I ended up getting that done faster than I thought and was able to pull the little dude in for a bit of testing. He's a 1st grader, been in a specialized academic placement since preschool, previously found eligible for Sp Ed services due to SLD and SLI. I started him out on the WISCIV as he is (per the records) and English Only kiddo, but then as we were doing the WISC I realized what a stupid choice that was because the kids speech is so bad. Oh well, it's not a terrible flop, I will most likely not get a valid Full Scale due to the huge discrepancy between verbal and perceputal reasoning, but we will have to wait and see since I only got through 7 of the 10 subtests with him. I also did some survey level assessment, but there wasn't much of a survey to do because he is very behind in reading (only read 4 correct words per minute on a primer passage). So I will need to finish up with him on Wednesday when I am back at the site and then start filling in the remaining blanks in my psych report.
I also inputted a bunch of stuff into our local SELPA data base, met with a behavior kid, and consulted with the SDC teacher. All in all a very productive day if I do say so myself.
I also inputted a bunch of stuff into our local SELPA data base, met with a behavior kid, and consulted with the SDC teacher. All in all a very productive day if I do say so myself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)