About CEED

Projects

Publications

Professional Development

Partners & Links
 

In this issue:

Screening for Children With
Special Needs

Meeting Children's Needs

We know the importance of early childhood education, especially for children who are at risk for problems and perhaps failure in school. There is talk about expanding screening programs to identify children who need special services and help place them in appropriate programs. Before any decisions are made, it is important to be very clear about the values and the dangers of screening

The Purpose of Screening

Screening is a first step in identifying children who may be at risk of future difficulty in school (e.g., inability to meet academic expectations) and those who may have special needs in learning (e.g., extraordinary abilities and talents or handicapping conditions). In both cases, the identified children must be assessed more carefully to evaluate whether they do indeed require adaptations of the regular instructional program, or qualify for .specialized educational placement.

A Complete Assessment Should Include the Child's Environment, Too

Longitudinal studies in Minnesota and other states have produced dramatic evidence about the immense power of multiple, cumulative risk on intellectual development. They indicate clearly that such factors as maternal anxiety and mental health, mother-child interaction, family support, and stressful life events can play a major role in the child's development.

There is specific evidence that as the number of risk factors increases, intellectual performance decreases. Thus, when "at risk" children are faced with more risks in each year of their lives, their performance can drop steadily, widening the intellectual gap between them and their peers in the public school system.

Therefore, it becomes clear that in screening and assessing children, information about the child's world (family and environment) is as important as scores from the testing of the child's performance at a particular time and place.

Is Screening the Answer?

The terms "screening" and "assessment" are not interchangeable.

Because screening is intended as a first step in determining needs of children, the measures are usually inexpensive, brief, and simple to administer. It is not surprising therefore that screening tools have very low predictive power. They only provide information about which children need further assessment with diagnostic measures. Screening alone is not sufficient for decisions about a child's placement or kind of instruction. Further assessment is necessary.

Issues in Screening

Researchers, educators and psychologists differ in their opinions about whether screening is valid and/or whether it may be harmful. Many are concerned about the quality of the screening programs and the tools that are used. Most are worried that some children will be labeled falsely and that some who need special services will go unattended. All would agree that the issues boil down to the questions why, when, and how.

WHY? It is a first step in identifying children who may have special needs. It can not only determine which children need assessment, but insure that children who need service are not overlooked.

WHEN? Young children change rapidly, especially in social-emotional development. Individual growth factors may cause problems to appear later or early problems may be overcome with further development and learning. Therefore, it is essential that screening be done periodically.

HOW should screening information be used? When screening indicates the possibility of a problem, the child should be carefully assessed before a diagnosis is made. Only the results of assessment should be used to guide decisions about a child. Otherwise, children may be:

• unfairly excluded from needed services or placed inappropriately
• kept in a program that no longer meets their needs
• subjected to lowered teacher expectations, diluted curriculum or narrow homogeneous groupings, constricting their opportunities to learn.

Problems in Screening

There is concern because results from existing screening tools are plagued with errors. Because the measures may be inaccurate, they can result in denying services to needy children or expending scarce resources on children who, in fact, do not require intervention.

The tests produce errors for a simple reason. Young children's behavior is affected by unfamiliar situations. They may have difficulty responding to a strange person in a new place or they may not know how to use a pencil to write or mark on the forms. As a result, children may not be able to demonstrate their actual abilities. Information from multiple sources, parents, teachers, and others, using informal tools to supplement any tests and checklists--will present a more adequate picture of a child's current functioning.

FACT FIND Suggests:

As our state considers a model for a program designed to identify high risk children and families, the following factors should be considered:

1. Selecting children to be placed in specific programs based upon only a screening test provides no assurance that those most in need will be served.
   
2. A screening program must include sources of data beyond that presented by the child alone in a test situation. It should take into account child/environment transactions.

Four areas of family functioning have been found to have great impact and are should be included in the design of a model screening program:

• family needs, resources and strengths
• social support network
• significant life stressors
• characteristics of the caregiving environment

3. Screening must be periodic. It should be an ongoing process which helps distinguish between transient and permanent problems. All children and families should be examined on multiple occasions between birth and three years of age.
    
4. A system that will assure diagnostic assessment for those children identified in the screening is of utmost importance.

Recommendations of
The National Association for the Education of Young Children

About TESTING

1. School readiness tests indicate a child's level of preparedness for a specific academic program. As such, readiness tests should not be used to screen children for special education services or for placement decisions.
    
2. Developmental screening tests address a child's progress in broad areas of normal development. They indicate which children should proceed to further assessment.
    
3. Diagnostic assessments are designed to identify children with specific special needs, determine the nature of the problem, suggest the cause of the problem, and propose possible remediation strategies and placement.

About USING THE RESULTS

1. The results obtained on a single administration of a test must be confirmed through periodic screening and diagnostic assessment and corroborated by other sources of information to be considered reliable.
    
2. Decisions that have a major impact on children such as enrollment, retention, or placement in remedial or special classes should be based on multiple types of information and should never be based on a single test score.

About APPROPRIATE SOURCES OF INFORMATION

To make decisions about placement of a child, information may include combinations of the following:

• systematic observations, by teachers and other professionals;
• samples of children's work such as drawings, paintings, dictated stories, writing samples, projects;
• observations and anecdotes related by parents and other family members
• test scores, if and only if, appropriate, reliable and valid tests have been used.

Excerpts from The National Association for the Education of Young Children's Position Statement on Standardized Testing of Children 3 Through 8 years of age. March 1988, Young Children.

By Erna Fishhaut

Fact Find is published by the Center for Early Education and Development (CEED), University of Minnesota, 1954 Buford Avenue, Suite 425, St. Paul, MN, 55108

ceed@umn.edu (email)
http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed (Web)

CEED provides information regarding young children (birth to age eight), including children with special needs, in the areas of education, child care, child development, and family education. CEED activities include research, training, and publications geared toward improving professional practices, supporting parents, and informing policy development.

The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity employer and educator. The College of Education and Human Development is committed to recruiting, enrolling, and education a diverse population of students who represent the overall composition of our society. This publication is available in alternate formats upon request.

Copyright © 2004 by Center for Early Education and Development

These materials may be freely reproduced for education/training or related activities. There is no requirement to obtain special permission for such uses. We do, however, ask that the following citation appear on all reproductions:

Reprinted with permission of the Center for Early Education and Development (CEED), College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota, 1954 Buford Avenue, Suite 425, St. Paul, MN, 55108; phone: 612-625-2898; fax: 612-625-6619; e-mail: ceed@umn.edu, web site: http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed.