Child Development Media » Assessment & Planning

Social competence and mastery of communication skills are vital for children with multiple disabilities including deaf-blindness. This series discusses assessment methods appropriate for any child with severe disabilities and offers keys to making reliable observations.

It also shows how contextual evaluations differ from traditional evaluations.

The Parent Point of View (14 minutes): this video presents a panel of parents whose children have multiple disabilities talking about their experiences with psychological evaluations and child development. In it parents express misgivings about traditional evaluations and describe what causes them to become frustrated with the evaluation process and with IEP meetings.

Conducting a Contextual Evaluation (51 minutes): this video shows Dr Harvey H. Mar reviewing various types of psychologial evaluations. It discusses how contextual evaluations can be planned and carried out and why everyday environments and activities offer the best opportunity to understand how a child learns.

The Role of the Psychologist (19 minutes): this video addresses the problems in the assessment process when a student seems "untestable". It examines how hearing and vision loss effect learning activities and discusses why analyzing the context is as important as analyzing the student. Children with multiple disabiltities are shown in situations that demonstrate cognative abilities, communication behaviors, social relationships, and adaptive skills.

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Closed captioned.

Includes: Three VHS/DVD

Produced By: Harvey H. Mar Ph.D.