Autism Evaluation

The student in this case study has autism. His name is Adam. Adam is seven years. It is in a special class for severely handicapped students Day. Assessment of 3 years of Adam must be performed to determine its eligibility for special education services. Adam has a lawyer and parents who are very active with his studies. When the evaluation plan was presented to parents, they asked for additional contributions, including a functional analysis, occupational therapy and evaluation of assistive technology. A copy of the signed assessment plan has been given to the appropriate specialists: psychologists, occupational therapist, speech therapist, speech therapist, nurse and special education teacher.

The school psychologist noted Adam several times before administering the psychoeducational profile revised (PEP-R). The PEP-R covers a variety of fields of development. The test items are presented with simple instructions and practical and most of the expected answers are nonverbal. The PEP-R provides information on the operation of development in imitation, perception, fine motor, gross motor, eye-hand integration, cognitive performance and cognitive verbal areas. The PEP-R consists of a set of toys and learning materials that were presented to Adam in the activities of organized games. The psychologist recorded the responses of Adam to the test. His scores were then divided into seven areas and four behavioral development. The resulting profile revealed the strengths and weaknesses of Adam in the various fields of development and behavior.

Adam portfolio was used as an assessment tool. Included in its portfolio were samples of work, progress reports, behavior reports, notes from parents and daily reports. The teacher sent home daily reports that included performance, compliance levels and calls to tasks of Adam and objectives and benchmarks. His parents have signed and sent back daily reports and became a part of its portfolio. The daily reports were used to assist in the evaluation of Adam.

The school psychologist also conducted a functional analysis to determine why Adam was having disruptive behavior. Questionnaires have been sent home to parents to complete. Screaming and biting behaviors are his parents and teachers are concerned. The teacher is responsible for collecting data on behavior. The psychologist and professor has created a form for collecting data. The teacher showed the presence of undesirable behavior. Information for parents, psychologist and teacher comments were compiled by the psychologist and the report was written.

The OT Adam observed, evaluated and prepared a report. The school nurse Adam tested with a special device. It was determined that his hearing appeared normal. Adam's parents reported no problems with his vision and hearing. The speech therapist who worked with him during the last year, he also evaluated.

Other tests that can be used to diagnose and assess students with autism are the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC), Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and pre Linguistic Autism Diagnostic Observation-Schedule (PL-ADOS). These tests provide individual assessment of autism that have been specially designed to assess children with autism. In addition, this analysis is based on historical information on the child's behavior (usually provided by a parent), direct observation of the child by a professional or a combination of these methods.

assessment of Adam's assessment of three years was extended and complete. This evaluation has provided information about the team on the development of Adam, behavior, communication, health, coordination and cognition.