The challenge of providing psychological services for young handicapped children.

Abstract

There is a nationwide need for psychologists to provide services for young (birth to 6 years) handicapped children. The challenge is for psychologists to ensure adequate and appropriate assessment and intervention for children who have developmental disabilities including emotional, cognitive, sensory, and physical handicaps. This article addresses three problem areas: First, who should provide these services? second, what clinical procedures are most appropriate? and third, how can adequate training be obtained? A recently developed training program is described.There has been a dramatic increase in early childhood programs and infant stimulation services during the past decade. A major reason for the proliferation of such new programs has been public recognition of the importance of identifying, educating, and treating developmentally handicapped children as early as possible. The increased public recognition of the need for early intervention for handicapped children has resulted in changes in federal legislation, the most significant of which has been the Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (P.L. 94-142). Significantly, for younger developmentally disabled children, P.L. 94-142 requires Child Find for all children from 3 to 6 years of age (some states, e.g., California and Michigan, also require coverage of children from birth to 3 years). Child Find mandates the provision of "related services" for assessment, placement, and preparation of individualized educational or treatment plans.The law specifies that nondiscriminatory evaluations and appropriate individualized educational plans be provided for every child identified as handicapped. Under the law, developmental handicaps include emotional disturbance, mental retardation, physical disabilities, and hearing and visual impairments. As Mowder (1979) has pointed out, one critical aspect on which the success of P.L. 94-142 depends is that valid assessments be performed by appropriately trained professionals.The role of the psychologist is to ensure that appropriate assessments of handicapped children are done and that the children's treatment programs meet their needs (Schaar, 1979). The problem is that very few psychologists have the clinical skills or training to assess children under 6 years of age who have the full range of disabilities. Several surveys have suggested a nationwide need for training psychologists to fulfill the service mandates of P.L. 94-142 (Bardon & Wenger, 1976;Mowder & Demartino, 1979; Ulrey & White, Note 1).The challenge for professional psychology is how to meet the increased demand and provide appropriate services for handicapped young children. Three major issues should be considered in addressing this challenge. The first is who should be responsible within the profession? Since there currently is no clearly defined specialty group within professional psychology that addresses the needs of young children with the full range of developmental disabilities, should those responsible be school psychologists, counselin...

Dinamičko procenjivanje zone narednog razvoja testom za ispitivanje prvaka-1 (TIP-1)

“…Teškoće u proceni proizilaze i iz samih razvojnih karakteristika i osobenosti uzrasta predškolske dece jer se deca ovog uzrasta nalaze, posmatrano iz pijažetanskog pristupa, na raskrsnici između preoperacionalnog i konkretno operacionalnog stadijuma razvoja (Pijaže i Inhelder, 1978), odnosno razvoj je na ovom uzrastu promenljiv, intermitentan, pokretan te je stoga psihometrijskim pristupom teško proceniti na kom stupnju razvoja se nalazi dete u određenom trenutku. Jedna od najoštrijih i najprisutnijih kritika, upućivanih na račun ispitivanja predškolske dece generalno, odnosi se na pouzdanost i validnost postojećih instrumenata za procenu sposobnosti dece ovog uzrasta (Ulrey, 1981), jer što je uzrast deteta mlađi, teže je izvršiti procenu. Zatim, često se kritikuje to što se koriste testovne norme koje nisu izvedene na reprezentativnom uzorku, npr.…”

Enierging Issues in the Assessment of Young Children With Disabilities: The Expanding Role of School Psychologists

“…Bailey et al (1990) concluded that many disciplines have inadequately prepared professionals to provide services to preschool children and their families. Several reports indicate that a large percentage of practicing school psychologists have had limited coursework and preservice training in preschool assessment and intervention (Bailey et al, 1990;Bardon & Wenger, 1976;Ulrey, 1981), which limits their ability to meet the growing demands in the field of early childhood intervention. This review of preschool assessment and intervention enumerates many skills in which the school psychologist should receive training in order to provide comprehensive services.…”

Validacija Testa zrelosti za školu

“…U sudaru sa pokretnim i promenljivim razvojem dece na ovom uzrastu, naši instrumenti za procenu sposobnosti mogu izgledati poput razuđenih mreža kojima je teško uhvatiti tako varljive i stalno-izmičuće konstrukte. Dalje, jedna od najoštrijih i najprisutnijih kritika, upućivanih na račun ispitivanja predškolske dece generalno, odnosi se na pouzdanost i validnost postojećih instrumenata za procenu sposobnosti dece ovog uzrasta (Ulrey, 1981). Pri tome važi sledeće "pravilo": što je uzrast deteta mlađi, instrument postaje pogrešivija alatka, a kritike usmerene na te alatke bivaju glasnije.…”

“…Ovaj podatak ne iznenađuje, jer je konstrukcija instrumenata za procenu inteligencije dece od samih početaka i Bine-Simonove skale 1905. godine bila rukovođena pragmatičnim ciljevima -da postignuće na testu što bolje predviđa efikasnost u školi (Sternberg, Grigorenko, & Bundy, 2001). Međutim, interpretacija postignuća na testovima inteligencije pre pete godine mora biti veoma okvirna i izvedena sa puno opreza, zato što mnogi indikatori kasnijih teškoća u učenju i ponašanju jednostavno nisu podesni za merenje pre uzrasta od šest godina (Ulrey, 1981;Sattler, 1992).…”