Assessment & Strategic Methods
Reading Strategy Assessment Test (RSAT)
Reading Strategy Assessment Test (RSAT) is one assessment that can be used for adolescents with FXS. Essentially, RSAT is administered while a student is reading text on a computer. The students are required to read one sentence at a time so that their answers are based on their mental representation of the text. After reading each sentence, the students are prompted to answer questions. There are direct questions that ask the wh- questions about the events in the preceding sentence in order to measure the coherence of the student’s discourse representation. There is also an indirect question asking, ”What are you thinking now?” This question assesses the reader’s thoughts and provided an unbiased indication of their reading strategies. Additionally, the three reading strategies discussed by Millis and Magliano were bridging inferences, elaborative inferences, and paraphrasing.
The RSAT can be an effective assessment for individuals with FXS because of their impairments in vocabulary and pragmatics. Vocabulary & FXS: As a result of their delays in receptive and expressive vocabulary, individuals with FXS have trouble with comprehension and verbal expression. RSAT’s direct questions can explicitly assess how much they understand from the textual content. Also, RSAT’s indirect questions can explicitly assess their ability to express their thoughts and what they are currently thinking. Pragmatics & FXS: Individuals with FXS are recognized to have difficulty signalling their lack of comprehension therefore RSAT can assess the degree to which they understand their reading by testing their inference making and paraphrasing skills. Ultimately, RSAT can act as an external resource to facilitate their processes of understanding and dissecting the text. Individuals don’t have the strategic skill-set to evaluate, monitor and regulate their comprehension therefore this RSAT method can facilitate their understanding of the text |
The Response to Intervention (RTI)It can be difficult to determine if a child has a learning disability (LD) due to barriers such as, language, lack of proper instruction, or other challenges the student may have. The Response to Intervention (RTI) may be used to determine whether a child has a LD. RTI is a multi-tier approach that serves for both prevention and intervention.
The first tier consists of the teacher monitoring the students progress in the classroom. The students that do not respond to the instruction are provided with more and a different form of instruction in smaller groups (Tier 2). The students progress is again monitored in this tier and if they fail to respond again they can be qualified to special education services (Tier 3). The tiered approach of this model can also improve a students achievement in reading because of the quick interventions. These children may suffer from reading comprehension problems, however, there are many associative reading components that manifest the discrepancies in reading comprehension. Therefore, this makes it difficult for an educator to find out the core problem areas in reading. With that being said, many reading assessments should be implemented in order to attain valuable information that will allow teachers to individualize instruction. Easy CBMIn terms of monitoring reading assessment, easyCBM.com offers itself as a free source meant to evaluate degrees of skills for students ranging from kindergarten to middle/high school ages. The system bases itself on standardized measures that compile from a year's worth of curriculum in order to assess and understand specific levels of students' acquired knowledge in particular subjects. The students' mastered knowledge and understanding is compared to what is considered a typically appropriate comprehension at certain grade levels.
Easy CBM as an Assessment Tool & FXS: Studies have shown that those with FXS differed significantly in their relative strengths and weaknesses in their reading skills. Individuals with FXS experience their Letter Word Identification as their poorest component in regard to their reading performance. Furthermore, Easy CBM can come as a great form of assessment through its specific sheet activities by identifying problems and misunderstandings through visual recognition and verbalization capabilities in such categories, like: letter names, word reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Context-Based Model of Assessment
Parents and professionals typically report problem behavior as a significant concern for children with Fragile X Syndrome, which is why this study explores how behaviorally based intervention results in a reduction in problematic behavior and improvement in quality of life.
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Proposed Individualized Education Program for Case Study with Fragile X Syndrome
Van S. is a 13-year-old boy who lives and attends high school in Surrey. He frequently stutters or leaves out sounds his speech. He demonstrates perserveration, where he repeats words and phrases. Therefore, he has trouble expressing himself clearly towards others. In terms of his communication skills, they are minimal, especially when eye contact is required. Poor eye gaze ultimately raises anxiety levels and further creates social engagement gaps. He displays behaviour problems in forms of: tantrums, aggression, hyperactivity, emotional irritability, disruptive behaviour and lack of attention. Van S. experiences difficulty in his vocabulary and pragmatics. His reading skills are below average with a strong performance issue in letter word identification and recognition of basic objects. In relation to his inattention and reading comprehension difficulties, the student exhibits storage and integration deficits, which relates to working memory. While reading, he has problems in encoding, and thereby experiences difficulties in enabling himself to bridge together informational text with his prior knowledge. Ultimately, his skills are lacking in communication, articulation, and speech. Van shows competency in forming the skills to make sense of unknown words in the context of reading, and therefore is able to recognize the sounds that make up words and to put those sounds together.
Assessment:
Collaboration:
Writing:
Introducing:
Monitoring:
Reviewing:
Reporting:
Assessment:
- Van S. has currently graduated from elementary school, so we can review his school documents and marks, as well as commentary from previous teachers and professional educators
- Take into account any medical records or incidents recorded
- Interview Van S. and his parents to assess his home life, such as: how homework and achievement is facilitated and encouraged, his integration and communication skills with peers and his community
- Interview previous teachers to obtain their evaluations of his academic and social progression; these teachers can inform us on his learning preference and style, as well as his social engagement with individuals
- Observation of his performance and behaviour in educational environment and home settings
- Testing reading, language, writing, speech, and other communicative and literacy based standardized tests, for example, RTI, RSAT, Easy CBM, etc.
Collaboration:
- Integrate current teachers, counsellors, medical professionals, such as speech pathologists and behaviour interventionalists, and parents in a honest and trusting atmosphere
- Must have open communication and good organization of all aforementioned assessment information and documentation
Writing:
- A documented text expressing: goals, objectives, strategies, and evaluations
- Goals: long-term, such as appropriate expression of thoughts and ideas and improvement in reading comprehension
- Objectives: short-term, such as: minimizing stuttering and practicing on how to converse with another individual one-on-one
Introducing:
- Implement and introduce a plan into Van S.’s school and home life
- The plan: since Van S. seems to be displaying characteristics commonly associated with Autism, it would be in our best interest to start off with the basics by using visual schedules, visual cues to teach letter sounds or words, and visual communicative resources such as iPad, token boards, first and then boards, and bliss symbols. The use of a behavioural interventionist and Educational Assistant would be beneficial to monitor and regulate social functions and behavioural actions. This agent could also be seen as a mediator for communicating with the initial collaborative group on the progression of the student. With working memory being a huge factor in their reading discrepancies, ensuring multi-modal and multi-sensory activities, like the integration of work with music and movement, could help retain information learned. Also, since the individual is also displaying high levels of hyperactivity and inattention, as well as ASD symptoms, it would be advantageous for the collaborative party to consult medical physicians on possible pharmaceuticals to manage behavioural symptoms.
Monitoring:
- Easy CBM assessment
- Everyone involved should actively monitor the student’s progress, thereby continually evaluating his reading performance, monitoring his speech, and regulating his behavioural actions; all assessment of these components should be shared with the original collaboration group
Reviewing:
- Define and detail what has been useful and what has not
- Outline what needs improvement and therefore revise goals and change strategies
Reporting:
- Use records to document his progress throughout the year, such as report cards
- Interim evaluations including commentary and feedback with letter grades