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Tag

academic success

6

Accommodations for Computer-based Testing

By | NESCA Notes 2019

By: Sophie Bellenis, OTD, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist; Community-based Skills Coach

As a school-based occupational therapist, I found myself beginning each academic year by focusing on what my students needed to learn, the skills they needed to develop, and how I could best use my time to help them be successful in the classroom. Despite it being September, every year this inevitably led me to consider standardized testing – one of the many academic themes of springtime.

My third graders not only needed to know the foundational mathematics skills being assessed, but how to navigate the computer screen in front of them. They needed to practice the fine motor precision to move a mouse and click on small boxes or multiple-choice bubbles. My sixth graders not only needed to understand how to plot points on the x and y axes, but they needed to have the visual perceptual skills to plot these points on a computer screen that scrolls up and down.

This demand for computer literacy skills within testing was noted as early as 2003, when Thompson et. al noted the inherent disadvantage for students who lack access to computers. However, as we continue to move further and further into the digital age, it is clear that computer-based testing has become our nation’s go-to method for assessing its students’ grasp of academic content and subject mastery. Computer-based testing allows for more efficient administration, quicker result times, built-in accommodations, and other positive benefits that make commitment to this practice worthwhile. For many students, computer-based testing is hugely preferred, and the option to type an essay is far less daunting than writing pages and pages by hand.

However, the National Center on Educational Outcomes claims that, “Despite the fairly dramatic increase in attention to CBT (computer-based testing), accessibility challenges continue to have the potential to reduce the validity of the assessment results and to exclude some groups of students from assessment participation” (Thurlow, Lazarus, Albus, & Hodgson, 2010).

So, what happens when this manner of assessment is more difficult for our students with disabilities? How can we help? What can we do?

As is often noted by test creators and administrators, most computer-based tests have relatively comprehensive built-in accommodations. Options such as enlarged font, speech-to-text, and line masking are often built into the platform. Despite this, computer-based accommodations may not be enough. When it comes to being truly accessible, the assessment of skill areas, individualized accommodation, and significant practice of testing systems are all necessary to arrive at an accurate assessment of academic skills.

Consider Charles, a fourth-grade student who has been receiving occupational therapy for decreased fine motor precision, visual perception, and low visual and fine motor endurance. He has difficulty with visual memory and gets easily overwhelmed by visual clutter. As a student in the general education setting, it is initially assumed that Charles will take his standardized tests in the computer format. At his team meeting, Charles’ mother raises her concern that he will fatigue quickly due to the visual demands of staring at a computer screen for the testing period. The team offers to provide Charles with a paper-based version of the test so he can avoid having to look at a computer screen. But Charles has decreased fine motor precision and endurance! How do we accommodate his needs?

This one case displays the importance of considering the whole child, trialing different options, and working collaboratively. Charles could potentially be allowed to take the assessment on the computer with access to a paper copy. He could use a scribe to help him type or write while he takes a computer or paper version. Maybe Charles feels confident using the computer-based test and his mother’s concerns about visual fatigue were unwarranted. Realistically, the team does not know what is best for Charles until they try a few distinct options and get his input.

Computer-based testing tools are here to stay, and fortunately our children are becoming more and more comfortable with digital methods. As we continue to make this transition, it is important to maintain the commitment to be individualized. Each student has different needs, and I urge teams, related service providers, educators, and parents to consider these needs early in the school year and early in the student’s academic career.

References:

Thompson, S., Thurlow, M., & Moore, M. (2003). Using computer-based tests with students with disabilities (Policy Directions No. 15). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, National Center on Educational Outcomes. Retrieved [9/09/2019], from the World Wide Web: https://nceo.info/Resources/publications/OnlinePubs/Policy15.htm

Thurlow, M., Lazarus, S. S., Albus, D., & Hodgson, J. (2010). Computer-based testing: Practices and considerations (Synthesis Report 78). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, National Center on Educational Outcomes.

 

About the Author:

Dr. Sophie Bellenis is a Licensed Occupational Therapist in Massachusetts, specializing in pediatrics and occupational therapy in the developing world. Dr. Bellenis joined NESCA in the fall of 2017 to offer community-based skills coaching services as well as social skills coaching as part of NESCA’s transition team. Dr. Bellenis graduated from the MGH Institute of Health Professions with a Doctorate in Occupational Therapy, with a focus on pediatrics and international program evaluation. She is a member of the American Occupational Therapy Association, as well as the World Federation of Occupational Therapists. In addition to her work at NESCA, Dr. Bellenis works as a school-based occupational therapist for the city of Salem Public Schools and believes that individual sensory needs, and visual skills must be taken into account to create comprehensive educational programming.
To book an appointment or to learn more about NESCA’s Occupational Therapy Services, please fill out our online Intake Form, email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.

 

Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents (NESCA) is a pediatric neuropsychology practice and integrative treatment center with offices in Newton, Massachusetts, Plainville, Massachusetts, and Londonderry, New Hampshire, serving clients from preschool through young adulthood and their families. For more information, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.

 

5

Visual Skill and Academic Success – Looking Past 20/20 Vision

By | NESCA Notes 2019

By: Sophie Bellenis, OTD, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist; Community-Based Skills Coach

When a school nurse pulls a child into his or her office to complete a basic eye screening, he or she may write, “20/20 vision in both eyes. No visual concerns.” This child has successfully looked at an eye chart and read the letters; demonstrated the ability to look straight ahead, from an appropriate distance without things becoming blurry or illegible; and demonstrated visual acuity, or the ability to see with acceptable clarity.

But does this necessarily mean there are no concerns?

Visual acuity measures whether a stimulus is being seen – not necessarily if the information is truly being understood. The visual system is a complex part of the central nervous systems that incorporates the eyes, ocular pathways and brain to produce and interpret sight. It requires consistent communication between all of these individual anatomical pieces, the vestibular system and the skeletomuscular system. Essentially, vision is complicated and messy and requires many many different skills.

Breaking It Down

In terms of visual skills needed for academic success, we often break things down into three main areas: ocular motor control, visual perception and visual motor integration.

  • Ocular motor control describes the ability to physically move the eyes using the 9 ocular muscles. It encompasses the ability to track an object across a screen or a line of text across a book, or the ability to look up at the board and then quickly refocus on a sheet on paper on the desk. Imagine trying to watch a basketball game without the ability to track the ball across the screen smoothly. It quickly becomes tiring and frustrating. Occupational therapists often refer to these specific eye movements with technical terms, such as visual saccades, pursuits, convergence/divergence and accommodation. But in essence they describe eye movement.
  • Visual perception or visual processing is in many ways more nuanced. It focuses on the brain’s ability to organize, interpret and fully understand the information it receives from the eyes. Two main skills needed at school are visual figure ground and visual closure.
    • Visual figure ground is the ability to discern relevant information from a busy or cluttered background. A student with visual figure ground difficulty may not be able to search a busy white board and find a homework assignment. These students may also be visually overwhelmed by a worksheet with 20 math problems, but successful with the same problems presented individually.
    • Visual closure is a skill that specifically helps with reading efficiency and fluency. It is the ability to identify or visualize a complete form or picture when given incomplete visual information or when only a small piece of the image is shown. Visual closure allows us to read a sentence quickly without stopping to decode each individual letter. It is aslo oen raeosn taht mnay pelope can raed setneces wtih julmbled up ltetres. We recognize the form, not simply the sequential letters.  :  )
    • Visual closure plays a role in sight words and reading partially-covered papers or street signs in the community. While there are many more important visual perception skills, these two examples have functional, measurable effects in the classroom setting and are commonly identified through occupational therapy testing.
  • Visual motor integration (VMI) describes the ability to use all of these foundational visual skills in conjunction with foundational motor skills. It is the ability to interpret visual information and produce a precise motor response. In the classroom, this affects a student’s ability to copy shapes, produce legible handwriting and use scissors to cut along a line. Not only can these things be difficult, they can be exhausting as a child tries to use all of these skills at once.

While all of these visual components have multiple layers and intricacies, it is important to simply acknowledge that there’s more than the eye can see when it comes to vision. A child who “can’t see the board,” but has 20/20 vision, may just be visually overwhelmed. A child who looks at a page full of small block text and immediately gives up may not have the visual skill to read across a line. And a child who is learning to read beautifully, but still has difficult forming the letters in his name may have poor visual motor integration. Fortunately, there are many interventions and accommodations that can help build on and develop these skills further to foster confidence and success in the class and community.

About the Author:

Dr. Sophie Bellenis is a Licensed Occupational Therapist in Massachusetts, specializing in pediatrics and occupational therapy in the developing world. Dr. Bellenis joined NESCA in the fall of 2017 to offer community-based skills coaching services as well as social skills coaching as part of NESCA’s transition team. Dr. Bellenis graduated from the MGH Institute of Health Professions with a Doctorate in Occupational Therapy, with a focus on pediatrics and international program evaluation. She is a member of the American Occupational Therapy Association, as well as the World Federation of Occupational Therapists. In addition to her work at NESCA, Dr. Bellenis works as a school-based occupational therapist for the city of Salem Public Schools and believes that individual sensory needs, and visual skills must be taken into account to create comprehensive educational programming.

 

Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents (NESCA) is a pediatric neuropsychology practice and integrative treatment center with offices in Newton, Massachusetts, Plainville, Massachusetts, and Londonderry, New Hampshire, serving clients from preschool through young adulthood and their families. For more information, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.