[humanser] Assessments with children with disabilities

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi all,

I'm 2 weeks into my clinical music therapy internship now, and I'm
loving it so far.  I've met most of my adult clients and all of the
students I will be working with, and have several group sessions as
well as individuals at 4 local schools.

In my group sessions, I will be using an assessment tool called the
Music Therapy Social Skills Assessment, or the MTSSA. It is
specifically designed to assess social skill development in group
settings for children with neurodevelopmental disorders.  As the vast
majority of the children in my groups have Autism, most of our goals
are either social or communication-based.  I have yet to see this
assessment tool myself, but my supervisor has explained that different
elements such as reciprocal behavior and level of engagement are rated
on a scale from 1 to 8, with 8 being the most engaged or socially
developed.  The tool also takes stock of the type of play each child
is engaging in, such as solitary, parallel, onlooker, etc.  I know my
work is different, but I was curious if anyone else working with
children might need to gather similar data.  Groups of children this
young in this population are new for me, so I am trying to explore
ways I can accurately gauge things like type of play and engagement
independently before I have to get started actually documenting.  My
supervisor is wonderful and he is going to be guiding me through the
assessment process in the first half of the internship before I assess
in January and February on my own, but if I could get feedback from
another blind person to aid in my learning and to come up with some
possible adaptations for myself it would be useful.  Thanks in advance
for any suggestions.

-- 
Kaiti Shelton