Resources
- This resource provides supplemental early intervention information on working with families as partners.
- Evaluation and Assessment: Planning With Families
Discussions
-
Questions Families May Have Related to Evaluation and Assessment
What will happen during my child’s evaluation and assessment?
What will it cost?
How soon can we schedule the evaluation and assessment?
How much time is needed? Will I have to miss work?
How soon will I find out if my child qualifies for services?
Will I get a written report and who else will see this information?
What if my child doesn’t qualify?
Families as Partners
A collaborative evaluation and assessment process includes families as providers of information and as team members. Families are an integral part of any team and should have the opportunity to attend evaluation/assessment sessions and participate in all discussions.
When performing evaluation and assessment procedures, evaluators must carefully match the tools selected with the child and family. This requires familiarity with the tools available and the characteristics of the child. Familiarity with the family routines, activities, concerns, priorities and resources is equally important. Finally, being aware of the family’s culture and their primary language or mode of communication is critical. Some assessment tools and methods are not appropriate for English language learners, for example.
The family should be provided a description of how they can participate in the assessment. They should be invited to take an active role and participate in planning, what the assessment will cover, and in assessment activities. In early intervention, including for the extended IFSP option, evaluation and assessment is driven by the family’s concerns, priorities, and needs for the child gathered through a family directed assessment.
Families understand what motivates their child and are an expert on the child’s interests and capabilities in familiar everyday activities and routines. Children are more highly motivated by the adults that they share close relationships with than by strangers, and are more likely to demonstrate their typical functioning when the parent is engaged, supportive, and present as a secure base. Exploring in detail the strategies, methods, and modifications that parents and other caregivers have already tried, including those that are working and those that weren’t successful, helps the team to develop new strategies, methods, and modifications to try. Parents and other adults who understand their options and the importance of their roles in meaningful assessment can be prepared so that the assessment reveals meaningful information about the child’s present levels of development or performance and participation in activities that are important for the family.
 |
Gertraud’s third birthday recently passed and she was still not talking much. Her grandmother became concerned when family members began commenting on how quiet and withdrawn Gertraud was during her birthday party. Gertraud’s grandmother decided it was time to contact the local, Child Find team to better understand why Gertraud still wasn’t talking. Since Gertraud was wary of strangers, her grandmother felt she would avoid the Speech Language Pathologist who was going to assess her. After some discussion, her grandmother agreed to record Gertraud during her two most talkative times of day, bathtime and feeding the cat. This would provide the assessment and evaluation team with “real” time samples of the sounds Gertraud could make, even if she didn’t want to talk to the assessment team.
During Shantay’s family assessment, the early intervention evaluators engaged her family as partners by giving them some basic information about assessment, how it would help Shantay, and what they could do with the information together with her family to support her development. They initiated a conversation with her family about their concerns and priorities regarding Shantay’s participation in daily family routines and activities. The evaluators were then able to ask questions and answer the family’s questions about their concerns, priorities and resources related to supporting Shantay’s development. |
