NESCA’s Newton, MA location has immediate availability for neuropsychological evaluations. Our MA clinicians specialize in the following evaluations: Neuropsychological; Autism; and Emotional and Psychological, as well as Academic Achievement and Learning Disability Testing.

Visit www.nesca-newton.com/intake for more information or to book an evaluation.

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19

Transition Assessment: What is it anyway? How is it different from neuropsychological evaluation?

By | NESCA Notes 2020

By: Kelley Challen, Ed.M., CAS
Director of Transition Services; Assistant Director, NESCA

If you have a child who receives special education services or work in education, you are likely familiar with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004). This is the law that guarantees students with disabilities the right to free appropriate public education (FAPE) and that dictates that the purpose of special education and related services is to prepare students with disabilities for further education, employment, and independent living.

IDEA 2004 mandates that students have measurable postsecondary goals written in their individualized educational programs (IEPs), that describe the outcomes that a team expects for the student to achieve after exiting public education and that these goals must be “based upon age-appropriate transition assessments related to training, education, employment, and where appropriate, independent living skills.”[1] But, IDEA 2004 does not specifically define transition assessment.

Instead, the best and most commonly accepted definition for transition assessment comes from the Division on Career Development and Transition (DCDT). DCDT defines transition assessment as an “…ongoing process of collecting data on the individual’s needs, preferences, and interests as they relate to the demands of current and future working, educational, living, and personal and social environments.”[2]

Transition assessment can include formal testing, such as a standardized, published tests that compare students to others by age or grade or informal activities, such as interviewing or observing a student. Most students who are transition-aged (i.e., 14 or older in Massachusetts; 16 by federal law) have already had some assessments that will inform their transition planning, such as school evaluations, private evaluations, standardized academic testing, report cards, or even activities that happen within their guidance curriculum (e.g., assessment of strengths, learning style, personality type, career interests). But often, there will still be some testing needed to help better determine a student’s strengths and aptitudes, their preferences and interests for postsecondary adult life, and the gaps between their current knowledge and abilities and the requirements of the living, learning, and working environments in which they plan to function when they exit high school.

At NESCA, transition assessment is a highly individualized process that is designed to get a better sense of a student’s postsecondary living, learning, social, and vocational goals, to determine the strengths the student has that will help them reach those goals as well as the skills a student needs to develop to get there. While it is rare for two students to have the same assessment battery, transition assessment at NESCA often evaluates abilities, such as self-care, self-direction, self-advocacy, career interests, career aptitudes, communication, community use, functional academics, health and safety, domestic skills, leisure, readiness for college or other forms of postsecondary learning and training, transferrable work skills and readiness for employment. Once the student’s profile is understood, specific recommendations, aimed at readying that student for transition from high school to the next phase of life, are provided.

Often parents of transition-aged students are familiar with the term “neuropsychological evaluation“ and a student may have even had this type of private evaluation. But there can be some confusion regarding the difference between these two types of comprehensive testing. Neuropsychological evaluation focuses primarily on a student’s learning profile and the fit of that learner within their current academic setting. A good neuropsychological evaluation is a comprehensive assessment of a child’s functioning in many domains, including communication, visual-spatial ability, problem solving, memory, attention, social skills, and emotional status. The assessment of these functions is based upon information obtained from the child’s history, clinical observations, and testing results. Moreover, one of the most important aspects of a neuropsychological evaluation is the integration of all the information about a child into a meaningful profile of functioning that describes “The Whole Child.”

In contrast, a transition assessment evaluates the fit between a student and their future preferred learning, living, and employment activities and environments. While information from a neuropsychological evaluation about a student’s learning profile is greatly informative, a transition assessment gives equal weight to a student’s daily living skills, social skills, coping skills, pre-vocational skills, career interests and preferences, and self-advocacy skills. While transition assessments provide detailed recommendations related to current educational programming and transition services, a strong focus of transition assessment is an emphasis on what will be needed now, and in the near future, to assist a student in functioning, and, actually being successful and satisfied, in their postsecondary adult life.

For more information about transition assessment at NESCA, visit our transition services page and our transition FAQs.

[1] 34 CFR § 300.320(b)

[2] Division on Career Development and Transition (DCDT) of the Council for Exceptional Children, 1997, p. 70-71

 

 

About the Author:

Kelley Challen, Ed.M., CAS, is NESCA’s Director of Transition Services, overseeing planning, consultation, evaluation, coaching, case management, training and program development services. She is also the Assistant Director of NESCA, working under Dr. Ann Helmus to support day-to-day operations of the practice. Ms. Challen began facilitating programs for children and adolescents with special needs in 2004. After receiving her Master’s Degree and Certificate of Advanced Study in Risk and Prevention Counseling from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ms. Challen spent several years at the MGH Aspire Program where she founded an array of social, life and career skill development programs for teens and young adults with Asperger’s Syndrome and related profiles. She additionally worked at the Northeast Arc as Program Director for the Spotlight Program, a drama-based social pragmatics program, serving youth with a wide range of diagnoses and collaborating with several school districts to design in-house social skills and transition programs. Ms. Challen is co-author of the chapter “Technologies to Support Interventions for Social- Emotional Intelligence, Self-Awareness, Personality Style, and Self-Regulation” for the book Technology Tools for Students with Autism. She is also a proud mother of two energetic boys, ages six and three. While Ms. Challen has special expertise in supporting students with Autism Spectrum Disorders, she provides support to individuals with a wide range of developmental and learning abilities, including students with complex medical needs.

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.

18

Linking Strengths and Interests to College Majors and Careers: The MassHire Career Information System

By | NESCA Notes 2020

By: Kelley Challen, Ed.M., CAS
Director of Transition Services; Assistant Director, NESCA

Due to Covid-19, many schools are functioning in a hybrid or remote learning status, making access to school-based guidance counselors, college counselors and transition personnel more complicated. Consequently, I am working with an unusually high number of high school students and families to provide assistance with the college selection and admissions process this year. For these students and others, working with a private transition specialist or college consultant/coach provides the structure and consistent support needed to ensure the student is able to find colleges that will be a great match, highlight the student’s strengths as a college applicant and complete the application process efficiently. Most importantly, the added support reduces anxiety—which is a natural response to the college process as well as living through a pandemic.

There are so many factors to consider when choosing a college—size, religion, location, tuition and fees, availability of internships, academic support, etc.—and one of the most important differentiating factors is often the availability of majors that a student is interested in. As such, career exploration is a very important part of my work with college-bound students. There are certainly many online resources that are useful for career exploration—YouScience, O*NET OnLine, Naviance, Khan Academy, Dr. Kit, CareerOneStop, etc.—but my personal favorite site to help teenagers learn to use is MassHire Career Information System (Previously MassCIS; https://portal.masscis.intocareers.org/).

MassHire CIS is a portal that any individual, from middle school to adulthood, can access for free by logging in with their Massachusetts City or Town Name and their Zip Code. Once inside, users can complete assessments related to their interests, skills and values, preferred lifestyle and more. The site also allows students to link results from previously taken career assessments to information about occupations and occupation categories within MassHire CIS.

Using career interests, from assessments or just a self-reported interest (e.g., photographer, elementary school teacher, personal trainer), users can research occupations and find out everything from the tasks associated with the occupation, to helpful high school courses that relate to the job, and expected future wages and occupational outlook. Users can also watch videos to learn more about occupations.

Importantly, users can easily click from careers of interest to programs of study and ultimately to Massachusetts Schools or other US Colleges and Universities that offer majors leading to occupations of interest.

MassHire CIS is one of my favorite resources to share with teens, young adults and families as part of a college transition process—but also when students are building career awareness at other times or seeking a different path to employment. I hope that by spotlighting this in my blog, more families, educators and professionals will also explore and adopt this resource as a favorite!

 

About the Author:

Kelley Challen, Ed.M., CAS, is NESCA’s Director of Transition Services, overseeing planning, consultation, evaluation, coaching, case management, training and program development services. She is also the Assistant Director of NESCA, working under Dr. Ann Helmus to support day-to-day operations of the practice. Ms. Challen began facilitating programs for children and adolescents with special needs in 2004. After receiving her Master’s Degree and Certificate of Advanced Study in Risk and Prevention Counseling from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ms. Challen spent several years at the MGH Aspire Program where she founded an array of social, life and career skill development programs for teens and young adults with Asperger’s Syndrome and related profiles. She additionally worked at the Northeast Arc as Program Director for the Spotlight Program, a drama-based social pragmatics program, serving youth with a wide range of diagnoses and collaborating with several school districts to design in-house social skills and transition programs. Ms. Challen is co-author of the chapter “Technologies to Support Interventions for Social- Emotional Intelligence, Self-Awareness, Personality Style, and Self-Regulation” for the book Technology Tools for Students with Autism. She is also a proud mother of two energetic boys, ages six and three. While Ms. Challen has special expertise in supporting students with Autism Spectrum Disorders, she provides support to individuals with a wide range of developmental and learning abilities, including students with complex medical needs.

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.

18

Processing Speed Deficits and College – Part 2 – Finding a Fit

By | NESCA Notes 2020

By: Kelley Challen, Ed.M., CAS
Director of Transition Services; Transition Specialist

In my last blog, Processing Speed Deficits and College – Part 1 – The Dilemma, I discussed specialized instruction for students who have processing speed deficits in high school in comparison to the accommodations process in college. Below is a list of some of the accommodations and instructional modifications that are often afforded to students with processing speed deficits in high school, and if/how that support can be replicated in college as well as how hard a student may need to work to bridge gaps in support. One of the most important things to remember when reviewing this list is that modifications to the course of study or workload in a college course are typically not available in college. Students with processing difficulties must be able to keep up with the same instruction provided to every student in the class through a combination of accommodations, self-help strategies and use of supports (tutoring, academic coaching, office hours, study groups, etc.) outside of the classroom.

In the classroom

  • Reduced pace for instruction – High school educators may be used to heavily modifying their instruction (i.e., providing instruction at a slower pace, in manageable “chunks,” sometimes even with breaks between content) when they are teaching a class that includes students with reduced processing speeds. This is a typical methodology for many private special education schools and for special education classes in public schools. However, this is not the typical instructional style at a traditional college. With that said, there is great variety in the pacing of classes from one institution to another, and even from one teacher to another within the same institution. For students who have received specialized instruction in high school, it is important to consider the pace of available instruction and to sit in on college classes when considering this transition. Depending on the student’s learning profile, it may be necessary to seek out a college or support program that is specifically designed for students with learning disabilities or has had targeted programming for students with learning disabilities—especially those with processing speed deficits—for many years.
  • Copies of teacher notes or fill-in-the-blank notes – Note-taking is an important skill for life, and even students who receive accommodations to enhance their note-taking need to build skills for retaining instruction and oral direction. However, some students exit high school without note-taking skills. Upon request, colleges often have one or more ways that they can accommodate students who are unable to effectively take their own notes in class. Students may be able to get copies of teacher notes/slides, copies of notes taken by another designated student or professional note taker, recordings of class or opportunities to use other technologies in class, such as a Livescribe Smartpen. When note-taking is a challenge, it is important to understand what accommodations are typically available at a particular college, including what support might be provided for assistive technology training and usage.
  • Follow-up questions and review of learning – Students who have difficulty processing classroom learning in real-time are often provided lengthy opportunities to ask questions about materials outside of class and/or provided with copies of the teacher’s lecture materials and study guides for separate review. When thinking about college, easy access to course information and resources from outside of the classroom is an important consideration. While many universities and professors use learning management system (LMS) technologies like Blackboard, Canvas, Google Classroom, etc., there are still some professors who have not made the shift to using these systems for the majority of their coursework or student communication. Getting a sense of technology use is important if a student expects to preview and review course materials outside of the classroom (independently or with support). Understanding how easy it is to get ahold of professors outside of class (e.g., percentage of faculty who work full-time at the school, have offices, have office hours), and how to schedule brief times for individual communication with the instructor is also useful.

Managing assignments

  • Reduced writing – In high school, students who struggle with processing speed may be expected to complete fewer assignments or have longer deadlines than typical peers. In college, students are expected to complete the same number of assignments and to have all of their work for each course completed by the end of the semester. It is possible at some colleges to request extensions on assignments as an accommodation or on a case-by-case basis. However, extensions on assignments should be something that are needed as an exception rather than a rule or students may find themselves unable to keep up toward the end of a semester. Instead of extending deadlines, students who struggle with writing demands may benefit greatly by taking a reduced course load (i.e., fewer classes per semester) or by diversifying the types of classes they enroll in during one semester—for example, taking a kinesiology class at the same time as an English Composition class. If these types of accommodations are important, students will need to carefully understand a school’s policies on underloads as well as how much control/flexibility a student is able to have when managing their course of study.
  • Grading based on quality not quantity – Just as described above, it is important to remember that every student in a college course is expected to complete the same quantity of work and same course requirements. Both quality and quantity matter in college and for those reasons it is important to pick a school that is well suited for your pace and style of learning as well as a major that will enable you to fulfill course requirements using your learning strengths.
  • Support with reading fluency – Specialized instruction during K-12 education may have focused on helping a student to increase their reading pace. Reading intervention and readers are not typical in college. However, technology can be a lifesaver in supporting a student’s independent reading fluency. Students may benefit from audio books or from text-to-speech technology so that they can take in information in multiple modes and a faster pace. Practicing with technologies and understanding the related accommodations that will be available in college are important for continued reading success. Some high school students have additionally needed tutoring support because they learn best when discussing aloud content that they have read in a supportive setting—for those students, it has been important to seek out schools or learning disability programs that can provide this type of tutoring (a less common support) or to pay privately for tutoring in addition to college-based learning supports.

Testing

  • Extra time – This is one accommodation that is fairly common in both high school and college settings. One major change is that many high schools provided unlimited extra time to students, even those with no identified learning disabilities. In college, students will typically receive 50% or 100% extended time based on their needs as demonstrated in diagnostic testing. Good executive functioning can be helpful if you are a student who uses extra time on exams, because you may need to schedule your exams in a separate testing setting each time they occur.
  • Shorter length/Reduced writing requirements – As a college student, you are required to meet the same testing requirements as every student in your class. If you are accustomed to reduced writing requirements on tests, you will need to consider some of the other available accommodations (e.g., extra time, assistive technology, etc.) to successfully manage. You may also need support building your test taking strategies so that you can use your time most efficiently on tests.
  • Separate testing space – Taking a test in a reduced distraction environment, or possibly a private room, is another accommodation that is common in both high school and college. Similar to students who receive extra time on tests, there can be a high degree of planning and organization involved in scheduling one’s exams in a separate setting according to school guidelines. Students may want to inquire about the level of support that college personnel will provide to a student when they are first learning to organize and implement their testing accommodations.

Social and daily life

  • Two additional factors that may have been important in high school include Smaller school/class size and Similar peer cohort. Matriculating from a small homogenous class or school environment, where all of your peers have similar learning styles and accommodation needs, can be a shock. When researching and visiting schools, it will be extremely important to get a sense of who the other students on campus are, how common processing speed deficits are among students with learning disabilities on campus, how diverse the school is and how tolerant students generally are, etc. Sitting in on classes and taking part in accepted student days can be critical activities for students who are looking for a college that will meet them where they are at.

When students enroll with disability support services, they are often asked how their disability impacts their learning, what accommodations they were provided in high school, and what accommodations they think they will need. For students with processing speed deficits, it is critical to be able to answer these questions before beginning a college search and to find colleges that truly match their learning needs as well as their more general wishlist!

 

 

About the Author:

Kelley Challen, Ed.M., CAS, is NESCA’s Director of Transition Services, overseeing planning, consultation, evaluation, coaching, case management, training and program development services. She is also the Assistant Director of NESCA, working under Dr. Ann Helmus to support day-to-day operations of the practice. Ms. Challen began facilitating programs for children and adolescents with special needs in 2004. After receiving her Master’s Degree and Certificate of Advanced Study in Risk and Prevention Counseling from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ms. Challen spent several years at the MGH Aspire Program where she founded an array of social, life and career skill development programs for teens and young adults with Asperger’s Syndrome and related profiles. She additionally worked at the Northeast Arc as Program Director for the Spotlight Program, a drama-based social pragmatics program, serving youth with a wide range of diagnoses and collaborating with several school districts to design in-house social skills and transition programs. Ms. Challen is co-author of the chapter “Technologies to Support Interventions for Social- Emotional Intelligence, Self-Awareness, Personality Style, and Self-Regulation” for the book Technology Tools for Students with Autism. She is also a proud mother of two energetic boys, ages six and three. While Ms. Challen has special expertise in supporting students with Autism Spectrum Disorders, she provides support to individuals with a wide range of developmental and learning abilities, including students with complex medical needs.

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.

18

Processing Speed Deficits and College – Part 1 – The Dilemma

By | NESCA Notes 2020

By: Kelley Challen, Ed.M., CAS
Director of Transition Services; Transition Specialist

By nature, transition specialists are generalists—professional who support students with a wide range of disabilities in moving toward an even wider range of learning and life outcomes. Working in Massachusetts, with an early background as a guidance counselor in a college preparatory high school, I often support students who are contemplating whether and when they should matriculate to a four-year college program. Many of these students experience processing speed deficits. This means that these students may be capable of reasoning at average or above average levels, and therefore being stimulated and actively engaged by college course content, but these students also need extra time to process visual and verbal information, to make sense of this information, and to produce output.

Landmark College in Putney, Vermont, assembled an assessment for parents and students—A Guide to Assessing College Readiness—that includes five areas considered essential for students with learning disabilities who want to succeed in a traditional college setting. These include academic skills, self-understanding, self-advocacy, executive function and motivation/confidence. Some of the academic items include being able to read up to 200 pages of college level text in a week, writing an organized 10-page paper that cites multiple sources, and being able to complete all of the steps of a long-term project in a timely manner. Within the assessment, it is carefully noted that this is not a diagnostic tool and is intended to inform discussion about the appropriate environment and supports that the student will need to achieve success and struggle less in college. So, when I recently received a question from a parent who was wondering if it actually mattered that her student was not able to read 100 pages in only a few days, the answer I provided was, “it depends.”

While there are many ways that we accommodate and modify instruction for students who have processing speed deficits during high school, some of these methods are easy to replicate across college environments and others are heavily dependent on the environment or only replicable with a good deal of external support provided by people and technologies. For example, in high school, students with significant processing speed deficits may be supported through accommodations, such as teachers reducing their pace of instruction, providing copies of instructional materials and/or fill-in-the-blank note-taking templates, actively following up with students to confirm their understanding of material, and actively assisting students in digesting complex reading materials. They may also receive modifications such as reducing the amount of work a student is expected to do per quarter or on a test and offering lighter or alternative reading. When all of these accommodations and modifications are added together, a student has a highly specialized high school experience and may be left with gaps in their academic, executive functioning and self-advocacy skills that need to be carefully bridged when the student aspires to participate in college learning.

While high school accommodations and modifications center on supporting a student to successfully make progress in school, accommodations at the college level focus exclusively on what a student needs to be able to access the instruction that is already available at that college. Rather than individually modifying the curriculum or work load in a college course, a student must be able to keep up with the same instruction provided to every student in the class and the same requirements as every student in the college through a combination of accommodations, self-help strategies and use of supports (tutoring, academic coaching, office hours, study groups, etc.) outside of the classroom. Accommodations are still very individualized, but educational programming is typically not. This makes the college search and selection process complex and important for students with processing speed deficits. Not every college that specializes in supporting students who face learning difficulties is a good choice for a student with slow processing speed. And not every student with a processing speed deficit has the same skills, or faces the exact same challenges, when navigating college.

Stay tuned for our next Transition Thursday blog where I will elaborate on some of the common modifications and accommodations provided to high school students with processing speed deficits and how to think critically about college selection, support and accommodation based on experience with those accommodations.

 

About the Author:

Kelley Challen, Ed.M., CAS, is NESCA’s Director of Transition Services, overseeing planning, consultation, evaluation, coaching, case management, training and program development services. She is also the Assistant Director of NESCA, working under Dr. Ann Helmus to support day-to-day operations of the practice. Ms. Challen began facilitating programs for children and adolescents with special needs in 2004. After receiving her Master’s Degree and Certificate of Advanced Study in Risk and Prevention Counseling from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ms. Challen spent several years at the MGH Aspire Program where she founded an array of social, life and career skill development programs for teens and young adults with Asperger’s Syndrome and related profiles. She additionally worked at the Northeast Arc as Program Director for the Spotlight Program, a drama-based social pragmatics program, serving youth with a wide range of diagnoses and collaborating with several school districts to design in-house social skills and transition programs. Ms. Challen is co-author of the chapter “Technologies to Support Interventions for Social- Emotional Intelligence, Self-Awareness, Personality Style, and Self-Regulation” for the book Technology Tools for Students with Autism. She is also a proud mother of two energetic boys, ages six and three. While Ms. Challen has special expertise in supporting students with Autism Spectrum Disorders, she provides support to individuals with a wide range of developmental and learning abilities, including students with complex medical needs.

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.

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