Life Skills Assessment Options in Transition Planning

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Life Skills Assessment Options in Transition
Planning

• Gary M. Clark, Ed.D.
• Department of Special Education
• University of Kansas
• Lawrence, KS 66045
• gclark_at_ku.edu

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Life Skills and Appropriate Measurement of
Functional Achievement

• Transition servicesa results-oriented process
  that is focused on improving the academic and
  functional achievement of the child with a
  disability to facilitate the childs movement
  from school to postschool activities

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Life Skills and Appropriate Measurement of
Functional Achievement

• The IEP for students 16 and older (and younger
  when appropriate), must have
• ..appropriate measurable postsecondary goals
  based upon age-appropriate transition assessments
  related to training, education, employment, and,
  where appropriate, independent living skills

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What do we mean by life skills?

• Daily living skills
• Independent living skills
• Community participation skills

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Examples of daily living skills..

• Grooming and hygiene
• Appropriate choices in nutrition
• Appropriate care of clothing
• Responsible for personal belongings
• Knowing how to respond to symptoms of illness,
  accidents, or emergencies
• Appropriate use of leisure time
• Basic money management skills

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Examples of independent living skills

• Mobility and orientation skills (including
  driving or use of public transportation)
• Advanced skills of clothing selection and
  clothing care
• Advanced skills in personal care (grooming,
  hygiene, appropriate fashion choices)
• Advanced skills in personal responsibility for
  nutrition, fitness, and health care
• Advanced skills in money management and consumer
  skills
• Skills in finding and securing appropriate
  residential choices

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Examples of community participation skills

• Skills in locating and using community leisure
  and recreation facilities
• Skills in accessing community agencies (health,
  rehabilitation, employment, etc.)
• Appropriate consumer skills in the community
• Skills in accessing social opportunities for
  personal enjoyment and/or personal growth
• Interpersonal skills with family and others
• Responsible community behavior (civility)
• Responsible behavior as a citizen (voting, paying
  taxes,obeying laws, volunteering,
  conservation,etc.)

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Assessing Daily Living Skills with Formal
Assessments

• Adaptive behavior scales
• AAMR Adaptive Behavior Scale (School Edition)
• Adaptive Behavior Inventory
• Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale
• Scales of Independent Behavior
• Street Survival Skills Questionnaire

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Assessing Daily Living Skills with Formal
Assessments, contd.

• Responsibility and Independence Scale for
  Adolescents (RISA)
• Kaufman Functional Academic Skills Test (K-FAST)

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Responsibility and Independence Scale for
Adolescents

• Ages 12-20, mild disabilities or students at risk
• Subscales Domestic Skills, Money Management,
  Citizenship, Personal Planning, Transportation
  Skills, Career Development, Self-Management,
  Social Maturity, and Social Communication
• Scaled scores and percentile ranks based on norm
  groups
• Administration time, 30-45 minutes

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Assessing Daily Living Skills, contd.

• Commercially available life skills assessments
• BRIGANCE Life Skills Inventory
• Life Centered Career Education Knowledge and
  Performance Batteries

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Life Skills Inventory (LSI)
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LCCE Knowledge Battery
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Assessing Independent Living Skills

• Commercially available instruments
• Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment (Level
  III)
• Functional Skills Screening Inventory

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General Transition AssessmentInstruments that
Include Vocational/Occupational Assessment

• Enderle-Severson Transition Rating
• Scales
• LCCE Competency Assessment Knowledge Batteries
• Transition Skills Inventory (TSI)
• Transition Behavior Scale (2/e) (TBS)
• Transition Planning Inventory (TPI-UV)

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Assessing Daily Living Skills with Informal
Assessments

• Informal assessment options
• Checklists
• Interviews
• Observations
• Situational assessments for specific skills
• Ecological or environmental assessments
• Functional evaluations

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Checklists

• Advantages
• Permit assessment of a variety of behaviors
• Permit quick responses
• Eliminate students need to write
• Quick/efficient for teachers and parents

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Checklists

• Disadvantages
• Requires reading
• Many responses are not easily answered with
  Yes/No or a simple check that the behavior/trait
  applies most of the time
• No chance to immediately probe answers
• Problems in reliability

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Structured Interviews

• A structured interview is an informal
  assessment technique, but it has structure to it.
  
• An interview protocol is used to stay focused on
  the area of information desired, but probes or
  questions asking for clarification or examples
  are permitted.

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Examples of Structured Interview Questions

• What chore can you do best at home? Why do you
  think that is your best?
• Can you plan and prepare a meal for yourself?
  For others?
• Do you do all of your own laundering of clothes?
  If not all, any part of it?
• Do you have a drivers license?
• Can you use a city bus?

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Observations

• Life skills observations are more difficult to
  do for school personnel.
• The obvious alternative is to use checklists
  and interviews with families to take advantage of
  their observations.

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Assessment in the Context of Life Skills
Environments

• Ecological assessment
• Situational assessment
• Functional assessment or functional evaluation

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Ecological Assessment

• Life skills ecological assessment includes task
  analyses and environ-mental expectations or
  demands of the life skills environments
• Involves questions such as Is ____
  asked/required to ____? Are there strict
  standards for performance of ___? Is supervision
  required? Under what kinds of conditions are the
  tasks performed?

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Functional Assessment A Definition

• A functional evaluation or assessment process
  is one that is an organized approach to
  determining the interests, needs, preferences,
  and abilities that an individual student has in
  the domains of daily living skills, and
  occupational/ employability skills.

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Functional Assessment

• A functional assessment can use both formal
  and informal assessment procedures to provide a
  basis for planning and action.

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Situational Assessment

• Advantages
• Permits data collection on a variety of behaviors
• Is highly authentic assessment
• Permits assessment to occur in the context of
  learning, working, social, or leisure situations
  in the home, school, or community

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Situational Assessment

• Advantages, contd.
• Is more motivating for students than tests,
  surveys, interviews, etc.
• May be ongoing for a period of time and increases
  reliability of assessment data

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Situational Assessment

• Disadvantages
• Difficult to assess some behaviors because of a
  lack of control over the situational environment
• Observers/raters/evaluators cannot be in the
  situation at all times
• Observers/raters/evaluators in the situation
  might change the situation by being there

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Situational Assessment

• Disadvantages, contd.
• Is time-consuming for student and assessment
  personnel
• Requires coordination with a variety of persons
  for it to work
• Requires high degree of planning and monitoring

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Life Skills Situational Observation Assessment
Questions

• Is the student performing the life skills task(s)
  of the selected environment?
• Does the student perform the task(s)
  consistently?
• Is the student performing the task(s) at a
  satisfactory rate?
• Does the student meet secondary expectations of
  the targeted task(s)?

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Life Skills Situational Assessment Questions,
contd.

• Does the student know when errors are made or
  when the task is unsatisfactory because of
  quality, waste of materials, or performance rate?

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Checklist for Analyzing Performance Problems
(Mager Pipe (1997)

• What is the performance discrepancy?
• Why is there said to be a problem?
• What is the actual performance at issue?
• What is the desired performance?

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Checklist for Analyzing Performance Problems
(Mager Pipe (1997), contd.

• Is it worth pursuing?
• What would happen if we left it alone?
• Are our expectations reasonable?
• What are the consequences caused by the
  discrepancy?

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Checklist for Analyzing Performance Problems
(Mager Pipe (1997)

• Can we fix it?
• Do the non-performers know what is expected of
  them?
• Can the non-performers describe desired
  performance and expectations?
• Are there obvious obstacles to performance?
• Do the non-performers get feedback on how they
  are doing?

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Checklist for Analyzing Performance Problems
(Mager Pipe (1997)

• Is desired performance punishing?
• What are the consequences of performing as
  desired?
• Is performance actually punishing or perceived as
  punishing?

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Checklist for Analyzing Performance Problems
(Mager Pipe (1997)

• Is undesired performance rewarding?
• What rewards, prestige, status, or comfort
  support the present way of doing things?
• Does misbehaving or goofing off get more
  attention than doing it right?

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Checklist for Analyzing Performance Problems
(Mager Pipe (1997)

• Are there any consequences at all?
• Does desired performance lead to consequences
  that the task performer sees as favorable?
• Does non-performance lead to consequences that
  the task performer sees as unfavorable?

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Checklist for Analyzing Performance Problems
(Mager Pipe (1997)

• Is it a skill deficiency?
• Could the task performer do it in the past?
• Is the skill used often enough to maintain
  proficiency?

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Checklist for Analyzing Performance Problems
(Mager Pipe (1997)

• Can the task be modified?
• Can we provide some type of performance aid?
• Can we redesign the environment or provide other
  physical help?
• Can we transfer part of the job to someone else
  or arrange a changing of jobs?