SLD Guest Lecture given to U of M School of Social Work

1. Student Learning
Lecture Slides & Resources: http://goo.gl/Tjmu0

2. Overview
H op
lens efully a
e of ll w
to S impo ith a
RtI cho
Wor
ol S rtance
o
kers cial
Specific Learning Disabilities
CHC Theory
Woodcock-Johnson Cognitive Battery
Woodcock-Johnson Academic Battery

3. Objectives
Understand underlying principles of Response to
Intervention and how the principles apply to
academics and behavior.
Understand how RtI fits with cognitive assessment.
Understand CHC theory, how it is measured in
various cognitive assessments and that not all
cognitive assessments measure the same cognitive
areas.
Understand how WJ-Achievement battery supports
collected RtI data.

4. Response to Intervention
What is it?
What do you know about Response to
Intervention?

5. RtI
Federal IDEA Rules
RTI is one of the methods that states must permit
for the identification of SLD (34 C.F.R. 300.307
and 309); and perhaps most important, ©
"[p]rior to or as part of the referral process,
data-based documentation of repeated
assessments of achievement as reasonable
intervals, reflecting formal assessment of student
progress during instruction, was provided to the
child's parents" (34. C.F.R. 300.309)

6. RtI
Some states restricted practices further and all students
are identified as Learning Disabled under RtI
In Michigan our guidelines match closely to federal rules.
Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education
MI Criteria for Existence of SLD
RtI Goes by several different names depending on states,
districts, etc.
Responsiveness to Intervention
Multi-Tiered System of Support

7. RtI
No matter what RtI is called...
provide services and interventions to ALL students, including
students who struggle with learning (both academic and
behavior)
Improve the early identification and support of students with
learning and behavior needs, including need for special
education
RtI is appropriate for all grade levels and content areas (again
including behavior) but most often used for reading or math
Student progress is closely monitored at each stage of intervention
and results are used to make decision about the need for further
research-based instruction and/or intervention in general education

8. RtI - Essential Elements
Essential elements of RTI approach are:
providing scientific, research-based instruction
and interventions in general education
monitoring and measuring student progress in
response to the instruction and interventions
using these measures of student progress to
shape instruction and make educational
decisions
Klotz, M.B., Canter, A (2007) "Response to Intervention (RTI) A Primer for Parents" National Association of School Psychologists

10. RtI Tier I
Universal screening - screening of all
students at least 3 to 4 times a year using
curriculum based measures.
Universal screening scores are compared
to benchmark standards.
All students receive high-quality,
scientifically based instruction - this is the
school and district's core curriculum
Students MUST receive tier I instruction
Tier I differentiated instruction, and
instruction building upon universal design
for learning principals is much of what
teachers are already doing and is NOT in
addition to what they're doing already.

11. RtI - Tier II & Tier III
Change in the instruction -
again still has to be researched-
based instruction/intervention
Either frequency, intensity, and/
or duration is increased when
moving in to tier 2 and
frequency, intensity, and/or
duration is increased again to
be a tier 3 intervention.
Tier 3 is not necessarily only
for special education students.
Depends on the district's
model and/or philosophy.

12. RtI Challenges
Often missing pieces are:
tiered interventions
limited fidelity of interventions
re-teaching a skill in the same way
inadequate goal setting - expecting
student to be "at grade level" after just
6-8 weeks

13. We’ve RtI’d. Now what?
RtI does not replace a comprehensive evaluation
Even when RtI is done well most people still want
to understand the "why" to a child's struggles.
Some districts choose to take a lack of learning
as being evidence enough to show a learning
disability
Research supports cognitive assessments
"explaining" of academic difficulties

14. Specific Learning Disabilities
"The term "specific learning disability" means a disorder in
one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in
understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which
disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen,
think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical
calculations. Such term includes such conditions as perceptual
disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia
and developmental aphasia. Such team does not include a
learning disability that is primarily the result of visual,
hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of
emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or
economic disadvantage" (IDEA Sec.602(30(A-C))).

15. SLD
IDEA breakdowns academic functioning in to 8 areas:
oral expression, listening comprehension, written
expression, basic reading skill, reading fluency skills,
reading comprehension, mathematics calculation, and
mathematics problem solving.
Dyslexia is a narrow sense to refer to an impairment in
phonological processing that interferes with accurate and
fluent word recognition.
In maintaining educational orientation, School Psychologists
use the terms Reading Disability, Writing Disability, and Math
Disability rather than dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia.

16. What types of cognitive abilities
do you already know about?

17. Catell-Horn-Carroll
3 stratums
stratum I = g - general intelligence
stratum II = broad abilities
stratum III = narrow abilities
CHC abilities and definitions continue to
be updated.

20. CHC
Considerable evidence that both broad and narrow CHC
cognitive abilities and processes explain a significant portion
of variance in specific academic abilities over and above the a
variance account for general intelligence (g)
Prior to 2000 the majority of intelligence batteries did not
measure Gf, Gsm, Glr, Ga and Gs well which is concerning
since those are are impotent in predicting and understanding
school achievement.
Gf is often considered to be the essence of intelligence, but it
was not measured or adequately measured by mot intelligence
batteries such as the WISC-III, WAIS-R, WPPSI-R, KABC, CAS
(Alfonso et al, 2005)

23. WISC-IV vs WJ-Cog
WISC-IV omits Auditory Processing
(Ga), Long-Term Retrieval (Glr),
Combines Visual Processing (Gv) and
Fluid Reasoning (Gf).
Measures Short-Term Memory (Gsm),
Processing Speed (Gs) and Crystallized
Intelligence (Gc) similar to the WJ Cog

26. Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities
Battery of test measuring cognitive abilities and related
aspects of cognitive functioning (Woodcock, 1992)
Conformed with the Woodcock-Johnson III tests of
Achievement to form a complete Woodcock-Johnson III.
Using the COG and ACH together can help provide an
accurate picture of an individual's cognitive abilities, oral
language ability and achievement.
Based on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of
cognitive abilities.
All three stratum areas represented in the WJ Cog

27. Crystallized Intelligence
Synonyms, Antonyms, Picture Vocabulary, how objects are used, where objects are found.
Long-Term Retrieval
Recall of learned associations, recall of previously learned associations
Visual Processing
visual memory, visual process
Auditory Processing
sound blending, sound discrimination
Fluid Reasoning
deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning
Short-Term Memory
working memory, memory span
Processing Speed
perceptual speed

28. Woodcock Johnson - Test of Academic Achievement
Often cited as one of the most widely
used and respected individual
achievement tests
Tests are organized in to 5 areas:
reading, mathematics, written language,
knowledge, and oral language

41. Case Study

44. Take Aways
As School Social Worker you need to understand
how RtI applies to academics and behavior
Have multiple data sources and know that
cognitive assessments provide only one source of
data to inform SLD determination
Depending upon the student's response to quality
instruction and/or scientifically based
intervention, cognitive assessment may or may
not be relevant.

45. Emily Verbeke
emverbeke@gmail.com
Twitter: @everbeke

46. Citations
Dawn, Flanagan P., Samuel O. Ortiz, Vincent C. Alfonso, and Agnieszka M. Dynda. "Best Practices in Cognitive
Assessment." Best Practices in School Psychology, V. By Alex Thomas and Jeff Grimes. Vol. 2. Bethesda, MD: National
Association of School Psychologists, 2008. 633-60. Print.
Lichtenstein, Robert. "Best Practices in Identification of Learning Disabilities." Best Practices in School Psychology, V. By
Alex Thomas and Jeff Grimes. Vol. 2. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists, 2008. 295-318. Print.
Mather, Nancy, and Lynne Jaffe. Woodcock-Johnson III: Reports, Recommendations, and Strategies. New York: Wiley,
2002. Print.
Mather, Nancy, Barbara J. Wendling, and Richard W. Woodcock. Essentials of WJ III Tests of Achievement Assessment.
New York: J. Wiley, 2001. Print.
Flanagan, Dawn P., Samuel O. Ortiz, and Vincent C. Alfonso. Essentials of Cross-battery Assessment with CD. Hoboken,
NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2007. Print.
Schrank, Fredrick A. Essentials of WJ III Cognitive Abilities Assessment. New York, NY: Wiley, 2002. Print.