Planning LD Evaluations Dr. Sharon Lynch Dr. Philip Swicegood Sam Houston State University Hou-Met Annual Conference November 9, 2012

Has this been true? “ The field of learning disabilities has had other problems that helped stymie its development. The most problematic of these was our complete failure to develop operational criteria that could be used to identify (diagnose) children with learning disabilities and to delineate these children form underachieving or slow learners.” [Chamberlain (Ed.), An interview with Don Hammill, 2010, p. 315]

Will RTI solve all our problems in LD eligibility? “Eliminating the ‘severe discrepancy’ requirement and authorizing the use of a process to determine how a student responds to research-based interventions many provide assessment information that is more helpful for educational planning, but will probably have little impact on the numbers of students who receive special education.” (p. 98) Weintraub, F. (2005). The evolution of LD policy and future challenges. Learning Disability Quarterly, 28(2), 97 – 99.

How do we know what is likely to be an “instructional match”? “We take it as axiomatic that no student should be declared as having a leaning disability until we have exhausted our instructional repertoire and been unable to find an instructional match.” (p. 212) Applegate, A. J., Applegate, M. D., & Turner, J. D. (2010). Learning disabilities or teaching disabilities? Rethinking literacy failure. The Reading Teacher, 64(3), 211 – 213.

Comprehensive assessment and evaluation of students with learning disabilities : A paper prepared by the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities. June Learning Disability Quarterly. (2011)., 34(1), 3 – 16. “Learning Disabilities, like other disabilities, vary with the individual. Intra-individual differences may include strengths and weaknesses in performance, achievement or both. In addition, each of these differences must be considered relative to age, grade, or intellectual abilities and within areas pertinent to learning (e.g, listening, reading, writing, reasoning, and mathematics). [page 10]

Examples of Complexity in Cognitive Abilities and Impact on Learning “ The ‘two factor theory of math fact learning we are proposing her suggests that difficulties learning math facts might result from either weaknesses in phonological processing or weakly developed number sense.” (p. 86) Robinson, C. S., Menchetti, B. M., & Torgesen, J. K. (2002). Toward a two-factor theory of one type of mathematics disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 17(2),

Relating Cognitive Abilities to Academic and Literacy Domains “Our findings provide support for including cognitive processes related to the suspected area of disability in the explanatory component of an SLD diagnostic process. Clinicians should assess processes strongly related to a specific area of academic achievement (Flanagan, etc. al., 206; Mather & Gregg, 2006; Pennington, 2009). The magnitude of effect sizes suggests that the key cognitive areas on which to focus include working memory, processing speed, executive functioning, and receptive and expressive language.” (p. 13) Johnson, E. S., Humphrey, M., Mellard, D. F., Woods, K., & Swanson, H. L. (2010). Cognitive processing deficits and students with specific learning disabilities: A selective meta-analysis of the literature. Learning Disability Quarterly, 33(1), 3 – 18.

Manifestations of Learning Disabilities Oral or Written Expression Cognition ReadingAttention SpellingExecutive Functioning MathematicsMetacognition MemorySocial Skills PerceptionConceptual Learning

IDEA Definition has not changed… (10) Specific learning disability —(i) General. Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. (ii) Disorders not included. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. [34 CFR §300.8(c)(10)]

Evaluation for LD (Kavale & Forness, 2000; Flanagan, 2007) I.Underachievement: Learning difficulties in language, reading, writing, or math that require SPD II.Review exclusionary factors III.Document processing deficits based on CHC theory IV.Academic deficits related to processing deficits V.Document areas of processing strengths based on CHC theory VI.Establish interference with functioning & review exclusionary factors VII. Criteria met for SLD

Evaluation: Referral Information What is the problem? Legal requirement to evaluate in all areas of suspected disability The child is assessed in all areas related to the suspected disability, including, if appropriate, health, vision, hearing, social and emotional status, general intelligence, academic performance, communicative status, and motor abilities § Evaluation procedures Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1414(b)(1)-(3), 1412(a)(6)(B))

Informal Evaluation Data Observations Interviews Record Review Progress Monitoring Data

Cognitive Ability Best to use co-normed instruments for achievement and cognitive ability For children with cultural and language issues KABC II-KTEA II family can be used Other: Wechsler Family with supplemental testing using the DAS-II or other instrument Woodcock-Johnson III

CHC Theory Research Based Cattell: 1941 Horn: 1965 Carroll: 1993 Other theories of intelligence are not based on research CHC Theory is based on factor analytic studies CHC: McGrew 1997

CHC Theory: 10 Broad and 70+ Narrow Ability Areas “G” Cognitive Abilities Fluid Intelligence (Gf)Visual Processing (Gv) Quantitative Knowledge Gq) Auditory Processing (Ga) Crystallized Intelligence (Gc) Long term Storage and Retrieval (Glr) Reading and Writing (Grw)Processing Theory (Gs) Short-Term Memory (Gsm)Decision/Reaction Time/Speed (Gt)

Cognitive Assessment Assess narrow ability areas required to determine general intellectual ability Assess in broad and narrow ability areas related to the suspected disability

Reading Concern: What areas to assess? Basic Reading Skills Reading Fluency Reading Comprehension Written Expression Oral Expression Listening Comprehension Math?

Math Sizeable percentage of those with learning disabilities in reading also have learning disabilities in math Extant data: grades, work samples, and benchmark testing

Legal Requirement Assess in all areas of suspected disability Decision to use a targeted assessment process or to use a general protocol approach

Using the CHC Processing Approach to Evaluation Assess in all academic areas where there is a suspected disability Assess in basic cognitive areas required to determine that the suspected disability is not due to intellectual disability Assess in cognitive areas, either Broad or Narrow Ability Areas or both, that are related to the area or areas of academic difficulty Analyze data for a pattern of strengths and weaknesses (PSW)

Test Selection Planning Guide: select those tests that are related to the area of suspected disability for the child’s age group Research indicates that different narrow ability areas are related to various academic areas at different age groups: ages 6-8, 9-13, 14-19

Caveats: Dual Language Backgrounds Pattern of strengths and weaknesses indicative of dual language background rather than a disability Students perform better on subtests that are not linguistically and culturally loaded Poor performance in those areas requiring linguistic and cultural knowledge, particularly Gc Culture-Language Interpretive Matrix (Ortiz, 2007)

References Floyd, R.G., McGrew, K.S., & Evans, J.J. (2008). The relative contributions of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll cognitive abilities in explaining writing achievement during childhood and adolescence. Psychology in the Schools, 45(2), McGrew, K.S. (2011). Applied psychometrics 101: CHC narrow ability assessment with the WJ III Battery. Institute for Applied Psychometrics, Retrieved March 17, 2012 from McGrew, K.S., & Wendling, B. (2010). Cattell-Horn-Carroll cognitive achievement relations: What have we learned from the past 20 years of research. Psychology in the Schools, 47(7), Ramaa, S., & Gowramma, I. P. (2002). A systematic procedure for identifying and classifying children with dyscalculia among primary school children in India. Dyslexia, 8, Robinson, C.S., Menchette, B.M., Torgeson, J. (2002). Toward a two-factor theory of one type of mathematics disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 17, Vukovic, R.K. (2012). Mathematics difficulty with and without reading difficulty: Findings and implications from a four-year longitudinal study. Exceptional Children, 78, Wagner, R. K. & Compton, D. L. (2011). Dynamic assessment and its implications for RTI models. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 44(4), 311 – 312.