IDENTIFICATION & REFERRAL

INTAKE

FAMILY ASSESSMENT

CHILD EVALUATION

FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT

CHILD AND FAMILY INFORMATION

CHILD HEALTH INFORMATION

FAMILY CONCERNS, RESOURCES, PRIORITIES

CHILD/FAMILY ROUTINES & ACTIVITIES

CHILD’S PRESENT LEVELS

ELIGIBILITY

SUMMARY OF FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE (COS)

PROCESS IFSP

FUNCTIONAL OUTCOMES

STRATEGIES

• More understandable, measureable individualized IFSP Outcomes / IEP Goals

• Families can tell when their children are achieving desired outcomes

• Reinforces the assessment and planning cycle

• Improves practice

• Supports progress in the overarching areas that are central to EI and ECSE

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Additional Benefitsof an Integrated Process

Assessment of the young child’s skills in the real life contexts of family, culture and community rather than discrete isolated tasks irrelevant to daily life

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“the science of the strange behavior of children, with strange adults, in strange settings for the briefest possible period of time.”

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

What is Functional Assessment?

Functional Assessment is…• Contextually relevant information about the child’s strengths

and needs

• Individually focused

• Culturally sensitive

Functional Assessment is not…• Domain based and discipline specific

• Deficit driven

• Intimidating

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Bagnato, S.J., Neisworth, J.T., & Pretti-Frontczak, K. Linking Authentic Assessment and Early Childhood Intervention -Best Measures for Best Practices, Second Edition. Brookes Publishing, Baltimore, MD. 2010.

Our Focus Shifts

From To

Knows how to make eye contact, smile, and give a hug

Initiates affection toward caregivers and respond to others’ affection

Knows how to imitate a gesture when prompted by others

Watches what a peer says or does and incorporate it into his/her own play

Uses finger in pointing motion

Points to indicate needs or wants

Shows a skill in a specific situation

Uses a skill in actions across settings and situations to accomplish something meaningful to the child

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Functional Assessment

• Families and familiar, knowledgeable caregivers in the child’s life

• Providers

• Teachers

• Others, less familiar, can also contribute

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Who performs Functional Assessment?

• Knowing the purpose for the assessment is important

• Observation is essential:

– Keep a focus on being objective vs. subjective

• Record keeping is key:

– Qualitative

– Quantitative

• Hearing from others who know the child is critical – involve families!

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How is Functional Assessment performed?

• Listen to the family story

• Observe and ask about the child’s day-to-day routines and activities related to

- engagement

- independence

- social relationships

• Ask parents to show or describe

• Observe how the parent engages the child

• Observe the child in play scenarios

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Involving Families

Functional assessment is the means by which we accomplish an integrated process, including developing individual outcomes/goals as well as determining the rating for each of the three global child outcomes.

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Making the Connection:Using Functional Assessment

• Why not complete the Child Outcome Summary (COS) rating while talking about the child’s functioning and development?

• Providers who are integrating the outcomes work, suggest that the completing the COS rating at the IFSP or IEP meeting to summarize the assessment results is a natural and enriching conversation

• Outcomes and goals become more functional – routine and activity based

For more information about integrating outcomes into the IFSP/IEP process, please visit the ECO website at www.the-eco-center.org.

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The Right People, the Right Situation,

the Right Time