Donald D. Hammill

Evaluating Children for Instructional Purposes

*Donald D. Hammill Ed.D., is professor of special education, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. TO ENSURE the most successful instruction of children with learning disabilities, the teacher must have considerable understanding of each pupil’s psychoeducational strengths and weaknesses. No superficial overview of a child’s performance will suffice. Knowledge of IQ, reading grade level, or neurological status, while interesting, does not provide enough information with which either to establish appropriate goals or to construct a reality-based training program for a specific child. Therefore, the implementation in the schools of an effective, educationally oriented evaluation program is of the utmost importance for a successful instructional experience for children with learning disorders.

The Slosson Intelligence Test as a Quick Estimate of Mental Ability.

Abstract The study investigated the reliability and validity of the SIT when administered and scored by 33 special education teachers who had no prior psychological testing experience. Subjects were 155 pupils between four and 16 years old who attended 40 Philadelphia schools. Results relative to interscorer differences, internal consistency, stability over time, and concurrent validity upheld the use of this measure as a quick screening device and corroborated Slossons contention that the test can be administered successfully by teachers.

IQ differences of right and left spastic hemiplegic children.

Differences in IQ between 74 right and 53 left spastic hemiplegic boys and girls from 36 states were found to be nonsignificant (p > .05).

Construct Validity of Selected Subtests of the ITPA

Six subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) were matched with parallel tasks which were equivalent to the subtests except in one dimension of the tests theoretical model. A total of 16 subtests and tasks were administered to 126 third grade children who met the same criteria used to select the original ITPA standardization sample. The data were factor analyzed using a principal components solution. Seven factors emerged and accounted for 66 percent of the variance. Each of the ITPA subtests loaded highly on only one factor. In addition, the subtests loaded with the other related tasks on factors which are clearly identifiable in terms of the model regarding level, process, and channel.

An abstraction test for visually handicapped children.

An Abstraction Test for Visually Handicapped Children An investigation was made to determine if Abstraction Test (AT), a measure using auditory input exclusively, which was originally constructed for cerebral palsied children (Irwin and Hammill, 1964) and subsequently standardized on a sample of mentally retarded children (Hammill and Irwin, 1966), was appropriate for use with visually handicapped boys and girls. Content of AT and instructions for administration are available in the cited publications. Quick estimates of the cognitive ability of sighted children are made by tests such as the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test or the Ammons Full-Range Picture Vocabulary Test, both of which presuppose that subjects have no vision or hearing impairment. The need is apparent for an instrument to assessthis important cognitive function in visually handicapped children.

A Short Form of the Revised Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities

A short form of the ITPA was developed for use in research projects. Sample items were selected from each subtest so that all the psycholinguistic functions measured by the original test were included in the abbreviated version. Both the long and shortened tests were administered to 83 ‘normal’ children from the greater Philadelphia area, between the ages of 5 and 10. T-tests of differences between subtests mean scores on both versions were computed and were not statistically significant at the 5% level of confidence. Correlation coefficients between the long and shortened version of each subtest were also computed. In all but one instance (the Auditory Closure Subtest, correlated at .78) coefficients reached or exceeded the 80 lower level set as acceptable for alternate test reliability. Although these results indicated that the short form ITPA had sufficient reliability to be used for the purposes of research or screening, the authors recommend that the study be replicated on children of uniform chronological age before it is used in clinical settings.

Deprivation or Learning Disability: Another Dilemma for Special Education

are disadvantaged, we also reject the idea that &dquo;disadvantaged&dquo; and &dquo;learning-disabled&dquo; are synonymous terms. The former refers to economic-social status and the latter to performance in linguistic or academic areas. It is true, of course, that disadvantaged pupils who read significantly below MA expectancy or who evidence basic linguistic disorders could be considered learning-disabled. Many professionals in the field of learning disabilities are reluctant to accept this because it would mean that between 25% to 50% (or more) of urban center-city schoolchildren would quality for learningdisability programs when adequate funding and personnel are not available.

CERTAIN SPEECH AND LINGUISTIC ABILITIES IN SUBCLASSES OF CEREBRAL PALSY

Five measures of speech and linguistic ability were used to evaluate differences between athetoids and spastics matched on CA and IQ. The measures used were Integrated Articulation Test, speech articulation ratings, Abstraction Test, Sound Discrimination Test, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The spastic children were superior to athetoid children on ratings of speech intelligibility and ability in articulation. The differences between the two groups on the sound discrimination, abstraction and vocabulary tests were nonsignificant, thus no significant differences were found between subclasses in auditory decoding as measured.

Republication of “Evaluating Children for Instructional Purposes”

To ensure the most successful instruction of children with learning disabilities, the teacher must have considerable understanding of each pupil’s psychoeducational strengths and weaknesses. No superficial overview of a child’s performance will suffice. Knowledge of IQ, reading grade level, or neurological status, while interesting, does not provide enough information with which either to establish appropriate goals or to construct a reality-based training program for a specific child. Therefore, the implementation in the schools of an effective, educationally oriented evaluation program is of the utmost importance for a successful instructional experience for children with learning disorders.

Comment on User's Experience with the Design Sequences Subtest

Use of a prorated score is preferred should an examinees behavior invalidate a subtest.