Essentials of Processing Assessment

Milton J. Dehn

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118417072
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Research & Methodology in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Step-by-step guidance and the latest research findings on the basics of processing assessment

Now in its Second Edition, Essentials of Processing Assessment provides critical information about this important aspect of cognitive functioning. This practical resource provides students and practitioners with the tools they need to accurately and efficiently assess an individual's ability to process information. As part of the Essentials of Psychological Assessment series, this book provides information mental health professionals need to practice knowledgeably, efficiently, and ethically in today's behavioral healthcare environment.

• Includes illustrative material, callout boxes highlighting key concepts, and "test yourself" question for gauging and reinforcing learning
• Update throughout to include four new chapters and a new companion CD-ROM that includes all worksheets and testing charts
• Packed with indispensable guidelines on organizing a processing assessment and interpreting results

Essentials of Processing Assessment, Second Edition, offers the best one-stop source of information to help students and practitioners identify processing strengths and weaknesses and plan appropriate interventions.

One

Introduction and Overview

From 2011 to 2013, a unique gathering occurred at several state school psychology conferences, beginning in Oregon and then proceeding to New York, Texas, and California. These were followed by a similar gathering at the 2013 national conference of the Learning Disabilities Association of America. At each of these venues, several experts in learning disability assessment and identification came together for a summit and presentations. The experts represented the fields of school psychology, neuropsychology, and learning disabilities. Among them were Dawn Flanagan, Nancy Mather, Kevin McGrew, George McCloskey, Daniel Miller, Samuel Ortiz, Steven Feifer, Elaine Fletcher-Janzen, Milton Dehn, and James B. Hale. At each conference, these summits were dubbed The Meeting of the Minds.

These summits were the brainchild of James Hanson and Karen Apgar, school psychologists from Oregon who were working on developing and applying the Pattern of Strengths and Weaknesses (PSW) model to specific learning disability (SLD) identification in Oregon school districts. In their efforts to develop a contemporary, comprehensive, evidence-based approach, they sought input and feedback from nationally recognized experts. They were especially interested in identifying what the experts, each with his or her own model of SLD identification, agreed on. Initial discussions with a couple of the experts culminated in the summits, which were attended by several experts.

As the experts met, one of the topics of discussion was how the PSW model should be applied to processing assessment. The experts already agreed that psychological processes should be directly assessed during SLD evaluations (Hale et al., 2010). Much of the group's discussion focused on the challenges of assessing psychological processes, the application of PSW to psychological processes, and how psychological processing strengths and weaknesses should be used to identify SLD. The group also addressed general concerns about SLD identification and the ramifications of their recommendations. One concern was that written guidelines are often misconstrued and applied rigidly without professional judgment.

This author participated in the meeting held in California in October 2012. At that meeting, the “minds” generated several tentative position statements about SLD that the majority of them agreed on. The points of general consensus were as follows:

• Neurologically based processing deficits underlie specific learning disabilities.
• A student cannot have a learning disability without the presence of a processing deficit.
• Some processes are highly correlated with academic skills. There is stronger evidence in some areas than others.
• If there is a learning disability, academic weakness(es) should be related to the processing deficits.
• A pattern of strengths and weaknesses in processing doesn't mean there is a learning disability. Clinical judgment, a comprehensive evaluation, and other sources of data must inform the diagnosis.
• Students with SLD have cognitive strengths and cognitive weaknesses, but their overall functioning tends to be at or near the average range.
• A weakness should be both normative and intra-individual.
• A weakness should be statistically significant and unusual in the population.
• Cultural and linguistic differences will impact student cognitive development and academic skills. A child cannot be considered to have a specific learning disability if culture and/or language are primary reasons for processing or academic weaknesses.
• Environmental/economic disadvantage can cause neurobiological deficits, which may, in fact, result in a learning disability.

As this author participated in the California summit, he was impressed with the appreciation expressed by conference attendees for the experts' presentations. The attendees appeared to be eager for all the information they could gather, especially in regard to PSW and processing assessment. They welcomed all the guidance in SLD assessment that was available. For some, it may have been new information, but for many it appeared that they were familiar with the models and best practice advice but were still struggling with implementing and applying these practices. Given that many of the recommended practices are not new and that several books and many articles have been published on PSW, cognitive processes, and learning disability assessment, the demand for more information was somewhat surprising.

Consequently, the revision of Essentials of Processing Assessment seems very timely. As states continue to refine their SLD identification criteria and practitioners seek more guidance on PSW and processing assessment, an update is in order. In 2005, when Essentials of Processing Assessment was written, nearly everyone in the field of SLD identification was focused on how to design and implement response-to-intervention (RTI) programs and procedures for SLD identification using RTI data. With the demise of the IQ-achievement discrepancy model, many RTI-only advocates viewed any standardized testing of intelligence, cognitive abilities, or psychological processes as irrelevant. Some states even dropped their requirement of psychological processing assessment, despite the federal statutory definition of a learning disability “as a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, spell, or do mathematical calculations” (IDEIA 2004, § 602.30).

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Don't Forget

An assessment of psychological processes should be included in every SLD evaluation, because Federal law (IDEIA, 2004) states “The term ‘specific learning disability’ means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes.”

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All of the discussion and controversy surrounding SLD assessment may have been beneficial. It has prompted practitioners to seek new information and to question and closely examine their practices. For example, practitioners seem more concerned with how to collect and utilize relevant assessment data in their decision-making processes. Practitioners also seem more interested than ever in understanding learning disabilities and finding evidence-based interventions for learning disabilities.

At the same time, developments in psychological measurement and an expanding research base have addressed some of the practitioners' interests and questions. For instance, many school psychologists have joined the growing specialty of school neuropsychology (Miller, 2010). Supporting this interest are new assessment tools for child neuropsychological assessment and such important psychological processes as executive functions. The interests have also been reinforced with neuroscience and neuropsychology research, which has led to an increased understanding of how the brain functions during learning and memory (e.g., Berninger & Richards, 2002). For example, neuroimaging has allowed us to actually see how the brain of a child with dyslexia functions differently (Shaywitz, 2003). Moreover, just in the last few years, new interventions for brain-based learning problems have been developed and supported. For example, one neuroimaging study (Tageuchi et al., 2010) was able to measure growth in the brain as a result of working memory training.

Changes to Essentials of Processing Assessment

The second edition of Essentials of Processing Assessment will attempt to incorporate many of the important developments and much of the relevant research that has occurred since 2005. Substantial revisions have been made to all of the original chapters, and new chapters have been written on the Neuroanatomy of Psychological Processes, the Children's Psychological Processes Scale (CPPS), Assessing Memory, and Evidence-Based Interventions for Processing Deficits. A CD-ROM with additional information, tables, assessment forms, and an Excel program for analyzing test scores has also been added. The change with the most impact on the structure of the book and the recommended assessment practices may be the formulation of a theory of psychological processing that accounts for the relations between psychological processes and learning. Other changes and additions include the following:

Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview

• How psychological processes can be distinguished from intelligence, cognitive abilities, cognitive processes, and skills
• An overview of theories related to psychological processing
• An overview of several specific learning disability identification models
• Introduction of a psychological processing and learning theory
• An Integrated SLD Identification Model

Chapter 2: Psychological Processes and Learning

• The addition of fine motor processing and oral language processes
• A more in-depth discussion of working memory and long-term recall
• Update on processing aptitude-achievement relations research
• A table that summarizes relations between processes and specific academic skills
• Discussion on the interrelationships among psychological processes
• How the identification of processing deficits contributes to SLD identification

Chapter 3: The Neuroanatomy of Psychological Processes (new chapter)

• A basic review of the brain structures that are associated with psychological process
• In-depth discussion of brain structures associated with working memory and long-term recall

Chapter 4: Strategies for Assessing Processing

• New items for student, parent, and teacher interviews
• New observation items
• Updated tables that classify composites and subtests by process

Chapter 5: Assessing Processing With Cognitive Scales

• Identifies subtests and composites on cognitive scales that measure specific processes
• Updates of specific tests, especially those that have been recently revised or published

Chapter 6: Assessing Memory (new chapter)

• Procedures for assessing working memory and long-term memory processes
• Detailed guidance for interviews, observations, history, and classroom data
• Tables that classify composites and subtests by memory processes
• Completed examples of memory assessment planners
• Details on use and interpretation of primary memory batteries

Chapter 7: The Children's Psychological Processes Scale (CPPS; new chapter)

• An overview of this new teacher rating scale, including information on its structure, reliability, and validity
• Administration, interpretation, applications, and an illustrative case study

Chapter 8: Using Scales Designed to Assess Processing

• Updates of specific test information, especially for recently revised or published tests

Chapter 9: Analyzing Test Results and Determining SLD

• Changes in recommended procedures for cross-battery analysis
• Using confidence intervals to test for significant differences
• How to examine processing clusters
• Recommendations for SLD identification
• How to assess the impact of aptitude sets
• An overview of the Psychological Processing Analyzer
• Guideline for writing a processing report

Chapter 10: Evidence-Based Interventions for Psychological Processing Deficits (new chapter)

• Concerns regarding processing interventions
• Different types of interventions
• Selecting and designing processing interventions
• How to set goals and monitor progress
• Details on interventions for each process

Chapter 11: Illustrative Case Study

• In-depth analysis of a case study that includes processing interventions

Definitions of Psychological Processes and Learning

Psychological processes are mental (neuropsychological) operations that perceive, transform, manipulate, store, retrieve, and express information (Gagne, 1993). Psychological processes range from basic perceptual processes, such as recognizing distinct sounds or perceiving visual details, to higher-level cognitive processes that contribute to language and reasoning performance. It would be very dif...