Test Psychometrics
A recent publication noted that practicing speech-language pathologists strongly associated evidence-based practice with treatment, but not with assessment.  This may be, in part, with an implicit belief that published tests have something of a privileged status.  Moreover, many clinicians feel ill prepared to navigate test manuals to determine if the evidence is available to support their clinical needs.  In this presentation, we seek to equip clinicians with the skills needed for evidence-based diagnostics.  The presentation will explode popular myths about standardized testing (e.g., tests themselves are valid or invalid, test bias is avoided if the norms include minority children).  Real cases and examples from tests will be used to illustrate core principles of evidence-based assessment.
Eligibility
Eligibility criteria for school-based services are dictated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA). The mandates of the IDEA then get translated through several levels of administration before being operationalized into a set of eligibility criteria used by local school districts. These translations can have the effect of the “telephone” game in which the message shifts with each translation between the law and the school district. As a result, clinicians are often asked to use practices that do not reflect evidence-based practice and have a dubious relationship to the law itself. This presentation reviews what the law requires by looking at the actual wording of the law and linking this to best practices in diagnostics.
This master course also described why the collection of background history is important for both diagnostic and intervention purposes. Case studies and sample speech and language reports were reviewed.