Language is the behavior of the brain; communication is the behavior of the body and brain. Financial Disclosure

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Phoebe Hilda Randall
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1 Financial Disclosure Asperger Syndrome & HFA Informal Dynamic Social Thinking Assessment Michelle Garcia Winner I am affiliated with Think Social Publishing. I publish multiple books on the topic of Social Thinking including information specially on assessment. Social Language Based Testing Today s talk is not a discussion of how to assess AS or HFA It is to explore how we assess social communication for all Test of Problem Solving (TOPS) Elementary Adolescent Social Language Development Test Elementary Adolescent Both tests by Many other tests explored and used: Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) and related pragmatic checklist (Pearson) Test of Language Competence (TLC) (Pearson) Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation (DELV) (Pearson) Tests of Narrative Language (TNL) (Pro-Ed) Why isn t social language testing enough? Language is the behavior of the brain; communication is the behavior of the body and brain. 1

2 Is Language the primary ticket to social success? Language skills are one of the strongest indicators of positive long term outcomes for persons with autism, so there has been an assumption that social language is the corner stone of social skills. However, Performance Intelligence Quotient (PIQ) is more positively associated with stronger sociability adaptive functioning on the Vineland than Verbal Intelligence Quotient (VIQ) (Saulnier & Klin, 2007) What is it we are we really assessing? Social Pragmatic Communication Concepts and Skills Requires : The ability to interpret other s intentions (whether they intended to communicate with you or not) Adapt one s thinking based on the interpretation Respond based on the expectations and/or desired goal of the encounter Why don t our standardized tests fully answer our questions? Talking is different from communicating. Majority of our communication is carried through non-verbal channels. What is not said is as important as what is said. e.g. It s ok, I m not offended. ASD is part of a complex information processing disability (Minshew & Goldstein, 1998). What are some of the many things happening at once? Social Thinking requires: Central Coherence (Happe & Frith, 2006) Theory of Mind (Schlinger, 2008) Executive functioning (Hill, 2004) Problem Solving (Goddard, et al,2007) Relational understanding: The purpose of it all! (Prizant, et al, 2006 a & b) and some more things impacting effective communication Language processing Language formation and response Tone, loudness, breathing patterns Body Posture, facial expression, eye-contact, gestures Social Learning challenges can impact: Comprehension of Spoken and Written material Written expression Organizational skills Working as part of a group Being friendly and developing friendships 2

3 ERIKA S WRITTEN LANGUAGE I LAUGH Model of Social Thinking I = Initiation of communication Paul & Sutherland, 2005 L = Listening with eyes and brain Frith and Frith, 2010 A = Abstract and Inferential Norbury & Bishop, 2002 U = Understanding perspective Hale & Tager-Flusberg, 2005 G = Getting the Big Picture/central coherence van Lang, et al., 2006 H = Humor and Human Relationships Losh & Capps, 2006 Peers are the best assessment team! Professionals assess the talk Peers assess the walk Often the professionals assessment results are vastly different from the peers! Which set of results are more valid? What can you expect from traditional measures? Acceptable to excellent IQ Often verbal IQ is higher than performance Acceptable to excellent achievement scores Acceptable to excellent Basic Language Scores 16 Social Communication Assessment Goal is to assess the more abstract elements of communication and language without depending on formalized tests, in spite of what the state standards may tell you We all have a professional responsibility to understand the child, even if our knowledge is in advance of formalized test development Informal Assessment as part of the evaluation Is an important part of assessing social communicative competencies (Paul, 2005); (Wilkinson, 2010)

4 Informal Dynamic Social Thinking Assessment Attempt to capture significant areas of challenge that presently elude standardize testing. Assess situations that can help you to objectify and describe your functional observations. Thinking About You Thinking About Me Informal Assessment Belief One: Students often appear more competent when asked to describe and problem solve 3 rd party situations. When put in situations where they are asked to react and respond as part of the interaction, we can observe more breakdowns or confirm competencies. Belief Two Assessments are about determining need and if need exists, functional treatment goals and related treatment plan. Test scores often fail to provide us with the treatment plan although they may flag an area of need (or they may not flag an area of need even if a need exists). Belief Three Our scores tend to be interpreted as black and white; do you have this skill or not? With informal dynamic assessment: We are assessing our own social expectations and how this student functions accordingly. Nuance matters for some. Social Radar System Social Radar System Exploring the spectrum of social radar strength One s perception of the hidden rules and social situations effects how they interpret and then respond to it. The Social Radar strength is determined in large part by neurology (what you are born to) The Social Radar intuitive abilities, impacts life long learning of social information and related social skills. 4

5 Social Thinking-Social Communication Profile Severely Impaired Social Communicator Impaired Social Communicator Emerging Social Communicator: level 1 & 2 Resistant Social Communicator Weak Emerging Social Communicator Social Anxiety Social Communicator Neurotypical Social Communicator Free Article on Our Website To be posted January 2011 Social Thinking-Social Communication Profile-Perspective Taking Spectrum: (2011), Winner, Crooke & Madrigal Belief Four Assessment should allow students to engage in social problem solving. It is an assessment of what it takes to help them discover the social information that we believe is accurate. Take data on the discovery process. Diagnostic therapy: see how they respond to learning this information as part of our discovery process. SOME EXAMPLES OF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS AND RELATED TASKS Assessment Question: How does your student think with their eyes? (e.g. Have joint attention) Can they talk about the thinking process to facilitate social learning? Use Thinking With Your Eyes assessment task Assessment Question: Basic Theory of Mind I understand your thoughts are different from my thoughts I understand I can manipulate your thoughts 5

6 Assessment Question How do our students flip perspective taking? Do they have a history of social language learning challenges: Pronouns! Task: The Double Interview I interview them (strength based) They interview me (more challenging) Social scenario picture example From Emotion and Expression Cards speech and language materials Copyright 2009MGWinner 32 Social Skills Checklists/Inventories Can be very helpful to objectify observations. May not be sensitive to the nuance of communication challenges. Look at skills as more black and white, rather than consider the gray. Do not provide you with the ability to determine the knowledge behind the skill. How do we justify lesser use of standardized measures to provide a more robust assessment? Statement we can write in reports: Unlike most standardized tests of social pragmatics and language, social communication is dynamic and synergistic, demanding split second interpretation and response. The complexity of the social communicative process defies being able to fully represent it through a summary of current standardized test scores. Therefore, we are also utilizing structured observations and dynamic informal assessment measures to more accurately assess this student s global social communicative functioning. How do we write our findings into reports? In addition to reporting standardized measures, teacher reports and checklist results. Use the ILAUGH of Model Social Thinking as one option to help organize your thinking and consider the social-academic connection for practical treatment goals. 6

7 Goal writing: 1. Defined: What is the outcome you are measuring? How do you explain it to the other members of the IEP team? 2. Observable: What are we to observe? Behavior change or demonstration of knowledge through explanation. 3. Measureable: Who will take the data (adult or student?) SAMPLE SOCIAL THINKING GOAL IDEAS Awareness of Expected/unexpected Rita will describe the hidden rules for a situation by listing what is expected and unexpected behavior for that situation with 90% accuracy. or When given a list of what is unexpected in the situation, Rita will describe the related expected behaviors with 90% accuracy. Self-monitoring When presented with a completed Social Behavior Map (SBM) for a situation, Rita will take data on her own SBM every 10 minutes in the class with 80% accuracy. (see attached sample of SBM attached to the IEP). Body in the group Juan will observe other students and describe when their bodies are in the group or out of the group with 85% accuracy during class time and on the More on body in the group During structured learning time, Juan will move his body into a group maintaining physical distance, while keep his shoulders, hips and head in the direction of his peers in the group with 85% of the time, across 3 sessions. 7

8 Thinking with your eyes Heidi will observe the eyes of another person and then describe what they may be looking at with 85% accuracy; once accomplished, Heidi will then make a smart guess to determine what they may be thinking about (based on what they are looking at) with 75% accuracy. Ask a question Robyn will be able 1 st remember what she knows about her conversational partner (people files) and then, 2 nd, ask a question to her partner based on what she remembers her partner may want to talk about, 75% accuracy for each part. Free information, articles, videos trainings and blogs Information about: Conferences Products Assessment and therapy Mentor and Internship training 8

Asperger Syndrome. Let s Go to the Movies 6/12/2012. Social Thinking Skills for Students with Asperger Syndrome/High Functioning Autism

Asperger Syndrome. Let s Go to the Movies 6/12/2012. Social Thinking Skills for Students with Asperger Syndrome/High Functioning Autism Social Thinking Skills for Students with Asperger Syndrome/High Functioning Autism Welcome & Overview Asperger Syndrome (AS)/High Functioning Autism (HFA) Social Skills, Social Thinking Social Thinking