[humanser] Assessments with children with disabilities

[Ericka]

That's really great what they're doing! I wish I had some advice for you Katie. Listen and pay attention to what the kids without disabilities are doing and saying. That will kind of help you judge what is age-appropriate behavior. I have some vision so I can't give you such good advice but typically advancing preschoolers are pretty active and Chattery. They are also able to share and sit still for more than a couple seconds. Two-year-olds and threes are very vocally independent (Sally do it !) and want to do things by themselves, help you, and able to walk depending on how close to age 2 they are. They should be able to ask questions at three and four. I don't know exactly how old chronologically your little ones are. These are just a few examples. It sounds like yours may not be able to speak much but they may grant and reaction to a touch or sound. You have to remember that the more severely multiply handicapped they are the more any sound is positive. You might be able to hear foot movements and hand movements. It all depends on so many things! What an exciting opportunity for you! 

Ericka Short
 from my iPhone 6+

> On Sep 10, 2017, at 1:10 PM, Kaiti Shelton via HumanSer <humanser at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Will do.  I'm feeling pretty comfortable with the assessment tool for
> use with my slightly older students, but this is because I am used to
> working with children who are elementary and early middle school age
> already, and those groups are much smaller.  Groups for music therapy
> are ideally not supposed to be super big anyway, but my one class of
> little guys is 9 kids strong, which is on the bigger side, and they
> are more significantly disabled than any of my other groups as well on
> the whole.  The good thing is that I will be with them for the whole
> school year whereas I see the kids at one of my schools for only a
> semester, so I'm sure it is just going to take some time.
> 
> I should add that this is an inclusion classroom, so three of the
> children are typically developing peers inserted into the
> self-contained class specifically to serve as models for social skill
> development for the other kiddos.  I'm very excited to see this
> classroom model in action throughout the year.
> 
>> On 9/10/17, Justin Williams via HumanSer <humanser at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> I certainly interested in how you do that, please keep me posted.  Your
>> opportunity sounds great.
>> Justin
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: HumanSer [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti
>> Shelton via HumanSer
>> Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2017 10:30 AM
>> To: humanser at nfbnet.org
>> Cc: Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [humanser] Assessments with children with disabilities
>> 
>> 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
>> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Kaiti Shelton
> 
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