Objectives of Intellectual Academic and Perceptual Evaluations

Introduction

Students with special needs are tested often because of special education needs and requirements. Sometimes parents may not understand the purpose of this testing. Therefore, this Parent Teacher Conference Handout describes the objectives of IQ, academic and perceptual testing. This should relieve the concerns and misinterpretation that parents may experience from a lack of knowledge.

 

Intellectual Evaluation Objectives

  • to determine the child’s present overall levels of intellectual ability
  • to determine the child’s present verbal intellectual ability
  • to determine the child’s non language intellectual ability
  • to explore indications of greater potential
  • to find possible patterns involving learning style i.e. verbal comprehension, concentration
  • to ascertain possible influences of tension and anxiety on testing results
  • to determine the child’s intellectual ability to deal with present grade level academic demands
  • to explore the influence of intellectual ability as a contributing factor to a child’s past and present school difficulties i.e. limited intellectual ability found in retardation

 

Educational Evaluation Objectives

  • To help determine the child’s stronger and weaker academic skill areas. The evaluation may give us this information which is very useful when making practical recommendations to teachers about academic expectations, areas in need of remediation and how to best input information to assist the child’s ability to learn.
  • To help the teacher gear the materials to the learning capacity of the individual child. A child reading two years below grade level may require modified textbooks or greater explanations prior to a lesson.
  • To develop a learning profile which can help the classroom teacher understand the best way to present information to the child and therefore increase his/her chances of success.
  • Along with other information and test results, to help determine if the child’s academic skills are suitable for a regular class or so severe that he/she may require a more restrictive educational setting ( an educational setting or situation best suited to the present needs of the student other than a full time regular class placement i.e. resource room, self contained class, special school etc).

 

Whatever achievement battery the special eductor chooses, it should be one that covers enough skill areas to make an adequate diagnosis of academic strengths and weaknesses.

 

Perceptual Evaluation Objectives

  • To help determine the child’s stronger and weaker modality for learning. Some children are visual learners, some are auditory, and some learn best through any form of input. However, if a child is a strong visual learner in a class where the teacher relies on auditory lectures, then it is possible that his/her ability to process information may be hampered. The evaluation may give us this information which is very useful when making practical recommendations to teachers about how to best input information to assist the child’s ability to learn.
  • To help determine a child’s stronger and weaker process areas. A child having problems in memory and expression will fall behind the rest of his class very quickly. The longer these processing difficulties continue the greater the chance for secondary emotional problems,(emotional problems resulting from continued frustration with the ability to learn) to develop.
  • To develop a learning profile which can help the classroom teacher understand the best way to present information to the child and therefore increase his/her chances of success.
  • Along with other information and test results, to help determine if the child’s learning process deficits are suitable for a regular class or so severe that he/she may require a more restrictive educational setting ( an educational setting or situation best suited to the present needs of the student other than a full time regular class placement i.e. resource room, self contained class, special school etc).

 


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