Children in the United States who are referred for special education assessments may or may not be assessed holistically. A child between the ages of 3 and 21 may qualify for special education if he or she meets the eligibility criteria for one of the 13 disabilities defined in the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and the disability adversely affects his or her ability to access education. Though a child may be labeled through the school or through health care professionals, the areas and extent a child will receive special education, is based upon results of standardized assessments. Children may be assessed holistically, being tested in academics (reading, writing, math), social/emotional, adaptive, behavior, cognitive, fine motor, gross motor, and communication (receptive language, expressive language, and articulation). Sometimes a child is determined to be in need of assessment in all these areas, sometimes only a few.
I believe this holistic approach is important, because there are many factors that affect how a child learns and is able to access education. Children with disabilities may have more than one “area” affected. A child who misbehaves constantly in the classroom may be doing so out of frustration because academic expectations are out of his or her understanding, or because he or she doesn’t understand much of what the teachers are hearing. To fully understand the extent of areas affected (or rule out those that are not), the child should be assessed not only in academics, but communication as well. This will help the educators and caregivers determine how to help the child: does he or she need academic modifications or communication support? Or both?
Environment, primary language, and sometimes rate of absenteeism may influence whether or not a child receives a label. Professionals must decide if a child may be struggling due other factors not measured by standardized tests. These may include cultural or language barriers, homelessness, or lack of exposure due to high absenteeism. Professionals must consider these factors so children are not labeled with a disability when they truly do not have one.
The country I looked into was Mexico. The identification of disabilities in schoolchildren are done with a holistic approach much like in the U.S. A significant difference is these assessments are not necessarily standardized. They are based off work samples, informal assessments, student history, and educational experience.
The benefit of Mexico’s way of determining whether or not a child receives special education is that it is more closely based on how a child does in comparison to peers in that community. The children therefore are able to access accommodations and modifications that allow them to be successful in their community. This is not always true in schools in the U.S. Standardized tests in the U.S. are based on national norms, however academic requirements vary from state to state. I often see children in the school I work at struggling academically because on standardized tests they score average or low average, but those do not accurately match up to the state standards.
References:
National Research Center on ADHD
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