Transcript Chapter 8 Learning Aptitude Purposes for Assessing Learning Aptitudes Identification of level of intellectual performance  Evaluation of adaptive behavior  Determine if students meet requirement for.

Chapter 8
Learning Aptitude
Purposes for Assessing
Learning Aptitudes
Identification of level of intellectual
performance
 Evaluation of adaptive behavior
 Determine if students meet requirement
for services for mental retardation
 Determine if there is average to above
average intellectual functioning

Issues and Trends
Intelligence testing is controversial
 Misplacement of students from diverse
groups in special education
 PL 94-142 provided safeguards against
testing abuses

Current Practices
Individual intelligence tests are currently
used in special education
 Adaptive behavior measures rely on
informants

Sources of Information About
Learning Aptitude

School Records
Group intelligence test results
 Individual intelligence test results
 Developmental and school histories


Students
Individual test of intellectual performance
 Current adaptive behavior is observed

Sources of Information About
Learning Aptitude

Teachers

Observations of
• learning aptitudes
• adaptive behavior

Parents
Developmental histories
 Observations of learning aptitudes
 Information about behavior outside of school

Group Tests of Intellectual
Performance
Rely heavily on reading skills
 Use a multiple choice format
 Tend to be low estimates of actual abilities
 Should only be used for screening
purposes

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for
Children–Fourth Edition (WISC–IV)
Most commonly used test
 One global score: Full Scale IQ
 Four composite scores

Verbal Comprehension
 Perceptual Reasoning
 Working Memory
 Processing Speed

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for
Children–Fourth Edition (WISC–IV)
Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of
Cognitive Ability

Cognitive factors assessed are:
Comprehension-Knowledge
 Long-Term Retrieval
 Visual-Spatial Thinking
 Auditory Processing
 Fluid Reasoning
 Processing Speed
 Short-Term Memory

Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of
Cognitive Ability
Kaufman Assessment Battery
for Children (K-ABC)
Norms available only to age 12
 Cognitive factors assessed are:

Sequential processing
 Simultaneous processing
 Achievement

Stanford-Binet Intelligence
Scale: Fifth Edition
Arranges subtests in skill areas rather
than by age
 Cognitive factors assessed are:

Fluid Reasoning
 Knowledge
 Quantitative Reasoning
 Visual-Spatial Processing
 Working Memory
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Hamill Multiability Intelligence
Test (HAMIT)
Special version of Detroit Tests of
Learning Aptitude–4
 Results in three composite quotients:

General intelligence
 Verbal intelligence
 Nonverbal intelligence
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Nonverbal Measures of
Intelligence
Raven Progressive Matrices
 Leiter International Performance Scale–
Revised
 Tests of Nonverbal Intelligence (3rd ed.)
(TONI–3)

Nonbiased Assessment of
Learning Aptitude

System of Multicultural Pluralistic
Assessment (SOMPA)
Rescores WISC–R based on socio-cultural
factors
 Includes a measure of adaptive behavior

Dynamic Assessment
 Learning Potential Assessment Device
(LPAD)

Uses a test-teach-test format
 Results are primarily descriptive

Adaptive Behavior Measures
AAMR Adaptive Behavior Scale-School
(2nd ed.) ABS-S 2
 Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales
 Scales of Independent Behavior–Revised
(SIB–R)
 Weller-Strawser Scales of Adaptive
Behavior for the Learning Disabled
 Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale–
Revised (ABE–R)
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AAMR Adaptive Behavior Scale-School
(2nd ed.) ABS-S:2
Answering the Assessment
Question

Types of procedures
Group or individual intelligence testing
 Adaptive behavior is assessed through:

• Interviewing
• Questionnaires to informants
• Direct observation
The nature of tasks affect results
 Learning aptitude must be documented
for all mild disabilities
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