Assessment

Assessment refers to the gathering of information in order to attain a goal.
Assessment tools vary with the goal. If the goal is to establish the diagnosis,
assessment involves the individualized administration of standardized tests
of academic achievement and intelligence that have norms for the child’s
age and, preferably, social class and ethnicity. To verify that the learning
disturbance is interfering with a child’s academic achievement or social
functioning, information is collected from parents and teachers through interviews
and standardized measures such as rating scales. Behavioral observations
of the child may be used to supplement parent-teacher reports. If
there is visual, hearing, or other sensory impairment, it must be determined
that the learning deficit is in excess of that usually associated with it. The
child’s developmental, medical, and educational histories and the family
history are also obtained and used in establishing the differential diagnosis
and clarifying etiology.

If LD is present, the next goal is a detailed description of the learning disorder
to guide treatment. Tools will depend upon the specific type of learning
disorder. For example, in the case of dyslexia, E. Wilcutt and Pennington
suggest that the achievement test given to establish the achievementintelligence
discrepancy be supplemented by others such as the Gray Oral
Reading Test (GORT-III), a timed measure of reading fluency as well as
reading comprehension. Still another assessment goal is to identify the
neuropsychological, linguistic, emotional, and behavioral correlates of the
learning disorder and any associated disorders. A variety of measures exist
for this purpose. Instrument selection should be guided by the clinician’s
hypotheses, based on what has been learned about the child and the disorder.
Information about correlates and associated disorders is relevant to setting
targets for intervention, understanding the etiology, and estimating the
child’s potential response to intervention and prognosis.

In schools, identification of LD involves a multidisciplinary evaluation
team including the classroom teacher, a psychologist, and a special education
teacher or specialist in the child’s academic skill deficit (such as reading).
As needed, input may be sought from the child’s pediatrician, a speech
therapist, an audiologist, a language specialist, or a psychiatrist. A thorough
assessment should provide a good description of the child’s strengths as well
as weaknesses that will be the basis of effective and comprehensive treatment plans for both the child and the family. In school settings, these are
called, respectively, an Individual Educational Plan (IEP) an
d an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP).