Special Education | Ummeed Child Development Center

Ensuring that each child is well-equipped to achieve his or her academic potential

Assessment

An assessment in special education, or psycho-educational assessment, is designed to determine a child’s learning strengths and challenges. It is generally used to screen for specific learning disabilities.

IQ Assessment

A test to determine a numerical representation of a child’s intellectual level, which represents his or her general cognitive ability

Tests

Intelligence testing is a method used by clinical psychologists to measure a child’s intellectual capabilities in several specific domains, as these are a good indication of a child’s cognitive abilities and academic potential.

The most commonly administered IQ tests at Ummeed are:

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC – Age 5 – 15.11 years)
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fourth Edition (WISCIV – Age 6-16.11 years).

Assessment Focus

During the testing session, the child is asked to work on different subtests that focus on the child’s verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed.

The majority of children enjoy the testing session as it is an engaging process involving novel and fun tasks.

Educational Assessment

A way of understanding child's capabilities in reading, writing, expression, perception, and communication

Tests

The educational assessment is done by trained Special Educators and involves a battery of tests:

Woodcock - Johnson III and IV Tests of Cognitive Abilities and Tests of Achievement
Test of Written Language (TOWL)
Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (NARA)
Test of Reading Comprehension (TORC)

Assessment Focus

The tests focus on determining the level of child's oral language which includes:

receptive and expressive language
word reading
reading accuracy
reading fluency
reading comprehension
spelling
creative writing
math computation
math automaticity skills
processing skills (e.g. auditory memory, phonological awareness, visual perception, and analytical and logical thinking skills)

Functional Assessment

An informal way of assessing a child’s academic level of functioning
Functional assessments are referred for:

children who score very low on the IQ assessment
children who are younger than 7 years and showing signs of learning difficulties
children for whom ‘English Language’ is very difficult to read, follow, understand and write

Assessment Focus
This assessment is done by Special Educators and involves the use of different kinds of games, teacher made worksheets and activities which center around the academic and non-academic areas of achievement.

For students in SSC schools, the SSC board mandates that testing be done at municipal hospitals in Mumbai. Ummeed will provide details about these hospitals so that families can navigate their systems better.

Diagnosis and Plan of Action

Scoring

Following the assessments, the items are scored and an interpretation is made.

Discussion with family

The Special Educator discusses the child’s difficulties with the family, as well as the reasons behind them and strategies that can be used to help and support the child. Special Educators keep in mind the strengths and challenges of each family so that suggested strategies have a greater chance of being used at home.

Further recommendations

If a child is diagnosed with learning disabilities, the Special Educator gives recommendations both for the child’s parents and teachers, so that some concessions can be given to the child outlined by the government for children with learning disabilities. The child is also referred for remedial services in order to improve his or her areas of underachievement.

Remedial Therapy

Remedial therapy helps learners with learning difficulties and disabilities achieve a higher level of success and self confidence in school and community. It may be useful for students diagnosed with learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual impairment, hearing impairment or cerebral palsy.

Sessions with a Special Educator

The Special Educator is not a tutor, but a person who works directly with the child using certain specific strategies or techniques pertaining to the area of difficulty

Customized plan of action

Each child has an Individualized Education Plan, a specially planned and systematically followed arrangement of teaching procedures and materials, accessible settings and other interventions

Family-centered care

Special Educators actively involve parents and caregivers in making plans of action as well as therapy sessions to empower them to work with their child at home

Skills Targeted

Receptive and expressive language Decoding and reading capacity Spelling and writing Math skills Word retrieval skills Visual perceptual skills Sequencing skills Study skills

The Team

Ushma Doshi | Mala Mehta | Mallika Mehta | Joyeeta Sen

Contact Us

To schedule an appointment, please email us at

scheduling.team@ummeed.org

or call us on
022 6248 8100