When working with children there are a variety of assessments that can be used to assesses the communication skills of students with severe disabilities. The first formal assessment used to assess the communication skills of students with severe disabilities is the
Communication Matrix (Rowland, 2004). It was developed as an assessment guide for evaluating the communication of individuals who have severe disabilities. The age of the students in elementary school and the disability of the participants are visually impaired. My evaluation of the usefulness of the instructional strategy is that demonstrates how the students are communicating and provides a foundation for deciding on communication goals. It shows where the students are and planning goals for
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For usefulness of these assessments, these communication temptations may need modifications to match the motoric needs of the students with physical impairments (Iacono,
Carter, & Hook, 1998). My evaluation of the usefulness of the instructional strategy is that it produced positive results. By using the assessment, it helped with the student wanting to communicate and it made communication fun for the student. The second informal assessment to assess the communication skills of students with severe disabilities is ecological assessment. The age is an elementary school student and the disability of the participant is an Autistic student. With ecological assessments, the strategies can be used to collect information about the unique communicative demands and opportunities of the environments that the student will encounter (Downing, 2005). This assessment will help with understanding the communicative needs of the students, the modes of communication that may be needed and how the learner is currently functioning in the situations. The effectiveness of the instructional strategy is that