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VIDBE - Q Volume 6 4 Issue 1
Catherine Nelson
Associate Professor, University of Utah ,
Cathy.nelson@utah.edu
Mason is five years old with curly brown hair and an infectious smile.
He laughs easily and hugs his family and teachers. He also has a severe
bilateral hearing loss, cerebral palsy, and near total blindness. Today, his
parents learned that he is below the first percentile on the norm - referenced
test that was administered to test his abilities. Mason seemed happy when
he went into the testing room with the psychologist but things quickly went
downhill when he realized his mother was not in the room. The
psy chologist tried to comfort him by stroking his hair, but startled, Mason
reached up and pinched her arm. As the assessment began, Mason was
handed blocks to stack and he put them in his mouth. When the blocks
were pulled away, Mason screamed. He was handed a miniature chair
which he again put in his mouth. This time, when the assessor tried to pull
it away, he threw it down and broke a leg off the chair. After 15 long
minutes of being bombarded with directions, objects, and tasks that had no
Child - guided Strategies:
The van Dijk Approach to Assessment
