Adaptive Behavior Assessment System 3rd Edition

Mike Irgang – Item of Interest 1

            My item of interest is the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System -3^rd edition. The reason for me bringing in this item is that it is the official behavior assessment we use for students placed in a self-contained classroom due to their disability. We use this behavioral assessment form because it has 10 sections that are to be completed by teachers and parents which provide a general picture of the student’s environments and how they adapt to them. The 10 sections are: communication, community use, functional academics, home living, health and safety, leisure, self-care, self-direction, social, and work. The assessment also comes in two versions; one is specifically designed to be completed by the parents/guardians at home, and the other by teachers in the school setting.

            This assessment system also comes with a computer based program which makes scoring them much easier on the social worker at the school. This assessment uses a Likert scale in which the scores are totaled up in the end to give a composite score of the student in a specific domain. Based on these statistics and standard deviations, the social worker is then able to identify results where the student scored “below average” and marks areas of concern. The computer based program allows the social worker to enter the data found in the assessments and instantly gives analytical results. The social worker can then take these results and put them in the report which will be given at the next IEP meeting for the student.

            In regards to my internship in particular and connecting this to evidence based practices, this specific assessment is used to measure the adaptive behavior of students who have lower cognitive functioning and are placed in a self-contained classroom. The reason for using this assessment with this population is because it gives a much more accurate picture of how the student functions in different settings compared to the scale used for high students in the general education setting. In short, this assessment is better suited for students with low cognitive functioning. Not only is this assessment a better fit, but it also gives hard evidence and statistical numbers a social worker can keep track of. Through periodical assessments it would be clear to see improvements and/or identify specific needs of the student.

Link to assessment:

http://www.pearsonclinical.com/psychology/products/100001262/adaptive-behavior-assessment-system-third-edition-abas-3.html

Mike Irgang – Item of Interest 2

            The second item of interest I wanted to show the class was a website that gives a great description of why students with autism engage in self-soothing behaviors. I wanted to bring this in because I have learned that working with students with autism is a huge part of what being a school social worker is all about. I brought in this website because it gives great information about students with autism and what the function of their self-soothing behavior actually does for the student specifically. I have not worked with this population until now and I have learned a great deal in a very short amount of time, not to mention how much I enjoy working with these students.

            This website is something I use as a reference often as it provides me with structure and reasoning around a population I will be working with for the rest of my career. Not only is this one article relevant to working with this population, but the entire website itself completely focuses on educating others about Autism. This has been a great tool for me and I even have it favorited on my browser. My only criticism of it is that it is not that user friendly, but, it still contains great information and resources for the disorder of Autism.

Link to Website:

http://caravelautism.com/caravel-autism-insights/self-soothing-repetitive-behavior/