Bridging the gap: What an educational evaluation should look like

Presented by: Michael Hart, Ph.D.

April 17, 2013

* Bridging the Gap:Psychoeducational Evaluations as the Key to Collaboration!

[email protected]

http://www.doctormichaelhart.com/

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A bit of history

*My professional arc

* Neuroscience *Shaywitz, Denckla, All Kinds of Minds

* Regulations supporting neuroscience


IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

"Specific learning disability" is defined as follows in 2004:

The term "specific learning disability" means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability

to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations.


According to the 2006 IDEA regulations concerning SLD, each state must

adopt criteria for determining whether a child has a specific learning disability as defined by §300.8 that:

(1) Must not require the use of severe discrepancy between intellectual ability and achievement for determining whether a child has a

specific learning disability as defined in §300.8 (c)(10);

(2) Must permit the use of a process based on the child’s response to scientific, research-based intervention; and

(3) May permit the use of other alternative research-based procedures for determining whether a child has a specific learning disability as

defined in §300.8 (c)(10); (IDEA, 20 U.S.C. §1414 (b)(6)(A).


*Waiting to Fail!

*Ability/Achievement discrepancy model for determining disabilities and consequently services


*Is RTI the Answer?


*The thing about RTI: A sidestep in the right-ish

direction


*www.rtinetwork.org

*No consensus on type of RTI to use

*No consensus on curricula, instructional methods, measurement, teacher training

*No mechanism for differential diagnosis of SLD and other disorders

*“Diagnosis by treatment failure”

*How do you assess “true positive?”

*Where does this leave us?


*Where we are now

*“The Third Way”*Only 21 of 50 states allow using The Third Way to identify SLD


*An example based on our most

common need


*Our Most Common Need

*Research consistently reports that 80% of learning problems are due to language processing issues.

*The vast majority of those with problems learning how to read exhibit difficulty with phonological processing.*Phonological awareness, rapid automatic naming

and phonological working memory

*However, it’s complicated…There is variability in the underlying processes beyond just phonological

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*The Importance of Processing Testing

If we don’t know how a child’s brain is wired and how that impacts their behavior and learning in school…

How are we going to…


*Support and Collaboration

*Support our teachers efforts to help the student both formally and informally (e.g., IEP development; working day to day)

*Give parents the language to advocate for their child within the “system” and to collaborate with school staff in the day to day environment

*Arm the child with language to describe their learning style (age appropriately) in a non-pathological , more positive way


*Waiting to Fail!

*Ability/Achievement discrepancy model for determining disabilities and consequently services



*Thank you very much for your time and consideration today!

Please feel free to contact me at [email protected]

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