Tests Most Commonly Used by School Psychologists
Content
Tests Most Commonly Used by School Psychologists
MCCARTHY SCALES OF CHILDREN’S ABILITIES The McCarthy Scales help to obtain a broad picture of a child’s abilities. Subscales diagnose a variety of abilities. Composed of six subscales, the McCarthy Scales are especially suited for the differential diagnosis: • Motor Scale • Verbal Scale • Perceptual Performance Scale • Quantitative Scale • General Cognitive Scale • Memory Scale TEST OF READING COMPREHENSION A method for assessing the understanding of written language. The General Reading Comprehension Core includes the following: 1. General Vocabulary – measures the reader’s understanding of sets of vocabulary items that are all related to the same general concept. 2. Syntactic Similarities – measures the reader’s understanding of meaningfully similar but syntactically different sentence structures. 3. Paragraph Reading – measures the reader’s ability to answer questions related to story-like paragraphs. 4. Sentence Sequencing – measures the ability to build relationships among sentences, both to each other and to a reader-created whole. BAYLEY SCALES OF INFANT DEVELOPMENT A standardized assessment of cognitive and motor development for children ages 1 month through 42 months to accurately compare a child’s performance to a contemporary reference group. WECHSLER INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST WIAT’s relationship to school curricula is appropriate for assessing or reevaluating children and adolescents, answering questions regarding a student’s achievement, and preparing an individualized plan of instruction. The Eight Subtests are: Ø Listening Comprehension – Goes beyond reception of sounds and words to levels of comprehension, ranging from understanding details to making inferential conclusions. Ø Oral Expression – Assesses the ability to name targeted words, describe scenes, give directions, and explain steps in a sequential task. Ø Written Expression – Is a free-writing task that addresses idea development and organization, as well as writing mechanics. Ø Basic Reading – Measures decoding and sight-reading ability. Ø Mathematics Reasoning – Encompasses major curriculum objectives in problem-solving, geometry, measurement, and statistics. Ø Spelling – Assesses encoding and spelling ability. Ø Reading Comprehension – Taps skills that include comprehension of detail, sequence, cause-and-effect relationships, and inference. Ø Numerical Operations – Tests the ability to write dictated numerals and solve basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems and problems with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and algebraic equations. TEST OF EARLY MATHEMATICS ABILITY The TEMA-2 measures the mathematics performance of children between the ages of 3-0 and 8-11 years and is also useful with older children who have learning problems. Items are specifically designed to measure the following domains: concepts of relative magnitude, reading and writing numerals, counting skills, number facts, calculation, calculational algorithms, and base-tens concepts.
WOODCOCK-JOHNSON TEST OF ACHIEVEMENT This is our most commonly used individually administered achievement test. Its purpose is to measure academic achievement in reading, mathematics, written language, and knowledge. VINELAND ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR SCALES Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, a revision of the widely acclaimed Vineland Social Maturity Scale, offers a valid and reliable measure of personal and social skills used by an individual or child in daily situations. It is useful from birth to adulthood. TEST OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE The TOWL meets the nationally recognized need for a standardized way to document the presence of deficits in this area of literacy. The eight subtests of the TOWL-3 measure a student’s writing competence through both essay-analysis (spontaneous) formats and traditional test (contrived) formats. The TOWL-3 includes the following subtests: v Spontaneous Formats: Contextual Conventions, Contextual Language, Story Construction v Contrived Formats: Vocabulary, Spelling, Style, Logical Sentences, Sentence Combining TEST OF EARLY READING ABILITY The Test of Early Reading Ability, Second Edition (TERA-2) measures the actual reading ability of young children. GRAY ORAL READING TESTS The Gray Oral Reading Tests-Diagnostic (GORT-D) assesses students who have difficulty reading continuous print and who require an evaluation of specific abilities and weaknesses. There are seven subtests in the GORT-D, organized under the three major cue systems believed to affect reading proficiency: meaning cues, function cues, and graphic/phonemic cues. WECHSLER INTELLIGENCE SCALE FOR CHILDREN – THIRD EDITION The most widely used measure of a child’s intellectual ability, WISC-III taps many different mental abilities that are aspects of a child’s intellectual functioning. Performance on these subtests reflects the child’s general intellectual ability and is summarized in three composite scores: Verbal IQ, Performance IQ and Full Scale IQ. ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT SYSTEM A comprehensive assessment of adaptive skills. It tests all 10 areas of adaptive skills specified by the American Association of Mental Retardation and DSM-IV: Communication, Community Use, Functional Academics, Home Living, Health & Safety, Leisure, Self-Care, Self-Direction, Social and Work. COMPREHENSIVE TEST OF PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP) assesses phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid naming. The CTOPP has four principal uses: (a) to identify individuals who are significantly below their peers in important phonological abilities, (b) to determine strengths and weaknesses among developed phonological processes, (c) to document an individual’s progress in phonological processing as a consequence of special intervention programs, and (d) to serve as a measurement device in research studies investigating phonological processing.
MCCARTHY SCALES OF CHILDREN’S ABILITIES The McCarthy Scales help to obtain a broad picture of a child’s abilities. Subscales diagnose a variety of abilities. Composed of six subscales, the McCarthy Scales are especially suited for the differential diagnosis: • Motor Scale • Verbal Scale • Perceptual Performance Scale • Quantitative Scale • General Cognitive Scale • Memory Scale TEST OF READING COMPREHENSION A method for assessing the understanding of written language. The General Reading Comprehension Core includes the following: 1. General Vocabulary – measures the reader’s understanding of sets of vocabulary items that are all related to the same general concept. 2. Syntactic Similarities – measures the reader’s understanding of meaningfully similar but syntactically different sentence structures. 3. Paragraph Reading – measures the reader’s ability to answer questions related to story-like paragraphs. 4. Sentence Sequencing – measures the ability to build relationships among sentences, both to each other and to a reader-created whole. BAYLEY SCALES OF INFANT DEVELOPMENT A standardized assessment of cognitive and motor development for children ages 1 month through 42 months to accurately compare a child’s performance to a contemporary reference group. WECHSLER INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST WIAT’s relationship to school curricula is appropriate for assessing or reevaluating children and adolescents, answering questions regarding a student’s achievement, and preparing an individualized plan of instruction. The Eight Subtests are: Ø Listening Comprehension – Goes beyond reception of sounds and words to levels of comprehension, ranging from understanding details to making inferential conclusions. Ø Oral Expression – Assesses the ability to name targeted words, describe scenes, give directions, and explain steps in a sequential task. Ø Written Expression – Is a free-writing task that addresses idea development and organization, as well as writing mechanics. Ø Basic Reading – Measures decoding and sight-reading ability. Ø Mathematics Reasoning – Encompasses major curriculum objectives in problem-solving, geometry, measurement, and statistics. Ø Spelling – Assesses encoding and spelling ability. Ø Reading Comprehension – Taps skills that include comprehension of detail, sequence, cause-and-effect relationships, and inference. Ø Numerical Operations – Tests the ability to write dictated numerals and solve basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems and problems with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and algebraic equations. TEST OF EARLY MATHEMATICS ABILITY The TEMA-2 measures the mathematics performance of children between the ages of 3-0 and 8-11 years and is also useful with older children who have learning problems. Items are specifically designed to measure the following domains: concepts of relative magnitude, reading and writing numerals, counting skills, number facts, calculation, calculational algorithms, and base-tens concepts.
WOODCOCK-JOHNSON TEST OF ACHIEVEMENT This is our most commonly used individually administered achievement test. Its purpose is to measure academic achievement in reading, mathematics, written language, and knowledge. VINELAND ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR SCALES Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, a revision of the widely acclaimed Vineland Social Maturity Scale, offers a valid and reliable measure of personal and social skills used by an individual or child in daily situations. It is useful from birth to adulthood. TEST OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE The TOWL meets the nationally recognized need for a standardized way to document the presence of deficits in this area of literacy. The eight subtests of the TOWL-3 measure a student’s writing competence through both essay-analysis (spontaneous) formats and traditional test (contrived) formats. The TOWL-3 includes the following subtests: v Spontaneous Formats: Contextual Conventions, Contextual Language, Story Construction v Contrived Formats: Vocabulary, Spelling, Style, Logical Sentences, Sentence Combining TEST OF EARLY READING ABILITY The Test of Early Reading Ability, Second Edition (TERA-2) measures the actual reading ability of young children. GRAY ORAL READING TESTS The Gray Oral Reading Tests-Diagnostic (GORT-D) assesses students who have difficulty reading continuous print and who require an evaluation of specific abilities and weaknesses. There are seven subtests in the GORT-D, organized under the three major cue systems believed to affect reading proficiency: meaning cues, function cues, and graphic/phonemic cues. WECHSLER INTELLIGENCE SCALE FOR CHILDREN – THIRD EDITION The most widely used measure of a child’s intellectual ability, WISC-III taps many different mental abilities that are aspects of a child’s intellectual functioning. Performance on these subtests reflects the child’s general intellectual ability and is summarized in three composite scores: Verbal IQ, Performance IQ and Full Scale IQ. ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT SYSTEM A comprehensive assessment of adaptive skills. It tests all 10 areas of adaptive skills specified by the American Association of Mental Retardation and DSM-IV: Communication, Community Use, Functional Academics, Home Living, Health & Safety, Leisure, Self-Care, Self-Direction, Social and Work. COMPREHENSIVE TEST OF PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP) assesses phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid naming. The CTOPP has four principal uses: (a) to identify individuals who are significantly below their peers in important phonological abilities, (b) to determine strengths and weaknesses among developed phonological processes, (c) to document an individual’s progress in phonological processing as a consequence of special intervention programs, and (d) to serve as a measurement device in research studies investigating phonological processing.
