The Hazards of Evaluating Social-Pragmatic Communication
The law is simple. An evaluation must be conducted in a manner that provides the necessary information to make a decision as to whether or not a child is a child with a disability. This places a responsibility on the diagnostician that goes far beyond “He scored this on the test.” According to IDEA (the law which governs public school special education), evaluation procedures are to be “…provided and administered … in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally…” For many students diagnosed with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (hfASD), the reporting of standard scores fails to reflect the information demanded by the IDEA. “Functional,” according to the law, means nonacademic and encompasses the “routine activities of everyday living (Federal Register, 2006., p. 46629).
The goal of IDEA is “To ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living..” This requires the evaluator to assess all areas of disability and not just state test scores. IEP teams need to understand that the purpose of an IEP is to prepare children with disabilities for life after school. Hence, teaching children how to function in the world is just as important as teaching academic skills.
How then, does one assess functional ability? According to the Federal Register (2006, p. 46629) “…evaluation procedures used to measure a child’s functional skills must meet the same standards as all other evaluation procedures, consistent with § 300.304(c)(1).” This means any interpretation must provide valid and reliable measures.
In many instances, the diagnostician will be required to tailor the assessment in such a way as to assess specific areas of educational need. “Assessments are selected and administered so as best to ensure … the assessment results accurately reflect the child's aptitude or achievement level or whatever other factors the test purports to measure …” (IDEA). These results must be valid and reliable as information will be used as mandated in Section 1414(d)(1)(A)(i)(I) of the Act stipulating IEPs include a Functional Performance Statement.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is fully aware that “Formal testing may be useful for assessing the structure and form of language but may not provide an accurate assessment of an individual's use of language (i.e., pragmatics) (ASHA, 2015).” Published research cautions that formal testing of pragmatics has limited potential to reveal the typical pragmatic abnormalities in interaction (Adams, 2002; Geurts and Embrechts, 2010; Geurts, et al.; 2009; Koning and Magill-Evans, 2001; Laughlin, Wain, and Schmidgall, 2015). Therefore, can one report standard scores of pragmatic abilities and meet the IDEA requirement for validity and reliability?
Another concern is in the test environment. It is well known that children with hfASD perform better one-on-one with adults than with peers (Kowalski, 2002; Kowalski, 2011). Most testing is performed in a quiet environment free of distraction – a setting that is perfect for many of these students to perform at their best. In addition, the testing often assesses cognitive knowledge of pragmatic skills in which the child identifies the correct choice when given 3-4 picture options. These types of assessments are inappropriate as they do not assess how he uses social-pragmatics – especially multi-situational social-pragmatics, because what we say with some individuals may be appropriate in one setting but with others or in another setting inappropriate. Would you have the same conversation with your friends at a bar with a group of nuns at church? Likely not.
Perhaps one of the most complicated concepts of the IDEA ruling is that evaluations “Are administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel.” This places a burden on the evaluator to understand the inherent difficulties with respect to assessing students diagnosed with, or suspected of having, social-pragmatic communication deficits, especially if it appears to be secondary to hfASD. The manner in which children use language in a social context is much more relevant in deciding if the child is a child with a disability than through traditionally assessed language areas (Russell, and Grizzle, 2008).
In short, if the child is isolated from his/her peers, either by choice or due to decisions made by others, and the basis for this isolation is due to how the child interacts, communicates, and emotionally self-regulates, then the child is demonstrating a functional disability as defined by the law. Ignoring this problem will not make it disappear. Those of us who have appropriate social skills never think about it. We acquired these skills by osmosis. We observed, imitated, and perfected them until we were competent. But individuals with these issues need specific instruction on how to do that because what worked for us, simply doesn’t work for them.
Does your school or district need help with this population?
Our flexible learning solutions offer educational supports for schools and districts. Committed to providing research-based, effective instructional programs as well as resources necessary for staff development, intervention initiatives, and program implementation, we can help you develop effective educational programming to meet the unique needs of students with social-pragmatic communication deficits. Our strategy for academic coaching is offered on multiple levels and can be integrated into both school and district scheduling for shorter or more extended time periods, depending on the needs of staff. In addition, our unique flexibility allows us to support a school or district and expand its programming to fully meet the needs of both students and staff. All of our programs are customized to meet educators' current initiatives. If you are interested in learning how we can help you meet the needs of this population please contact us at 407-245-1026 or connect with us via this website.
Professional Communication Services, Inc.
Timothy P. Kowalski, M.A.,CCC-SLP, ASDCS