Rhode IslandAlternate Assessment:

Planning for Students with Severe/Profound Disabilities

2009 - 2010

Students with severe/profound disabilities may experience

• significant cognitive challenges• mobility and movement difficulties• limited vision and/or hearing• learning through concrete means only• progress at slow rates in small

increments of gain• health challenges

Students with severe/profound disabilities are not too low for RIAA

• Access to RIAA comes by expanding ideas in different curriculum experiences

• RIAA provides student opportunities to demonstrate an understanding of different materials, textures, people, concepts, sights, smells, and sounds

• Students understand information at different levels

• Expanded definitions allow access to reading, writing, mathematics, and science

Modified materials for students with severe/profound disabilities

• Counting blocks• Tactile “text” as words• Name stamps with textures &

photos• Modified graphs

Modified materials for students with severe/profound disabilities

• NO 1.6 Use the counting sequence to demonstrate one-to-one correspondence between objects and counting words/symbols and to demonstrate that the final number is the quantity of the set.

• Counting block as an alternative to numerals alone in activities involving mathematics

2

• Comparing quantities using multiple counting blocks with textured symbols

• NO 18.1 Estimate the size of a collection, up to 100, without counting

010

Modified materials for students with severe/profound disabilities

How does a student read

• Letters and words might be too complex

• “Ih’qieliu”= has no meaning

• Reading text is expanded to include reading pictures, symbols, objects, actions, words to gain meaning.

Options for text

Tactile “text”• Buy (purchase)

• Grocery Shopping = Grocery shopping

buy

Tactile Names• Name symbols are consistent objects,

textures, jewelry, or markers consistently worn by people to indicate their name.

• Name symbols should be introduced to the student at the beginning of each interaction.

Name stamps with textures & photos

• Some students with severe/profound disabilities can read words

• Other students need other cues to identify their name

• Remember to place a photo, texture and/or written word to help a student identify his or her name stamp.

Modified graphs• For students who

are not successful with paper and pencil graphs, consider a shoe box graph.

• When graphing favorite books, have students place the collected data (real books) in the boxes

2

3

1

4

Stacked Shoeboxes

Rethinking words• Graph = box graph• Name = name symbol• Number = tactile number symbol• Tactile punctuation = raised symbol in a

question mark/exclamation mark shape• Write = convey a meaning using objects

that results a tangible product• Read = read objects for a purpose

Data collectionCapturing ACCURACY

• Accuracy captures whether the student was correct in their response.

• If assessing a student using choice, there must be two (or more) choices to determine whether the student is accurate.

Options for Choices• Correct choice and a FOIL

• Correct choice and non-preferred choice

• Correct choice and an incorrect choice

• Two correct choices and an incorrect choice

Choosing with Physical or Sensory Limitations

Providing structure in choices helps students make choices

A choice board provides this structure• Starting point• Access to two choices• Divided sections for each choice

Choice Board

Foil

Concept of Two Choices

WID 1.1a Identifying pictures/symbols/objects/ words that represent self and others

Sarah touched her name stamp and that of a classmate. When asked to find her name, accuracy captures whether she selected the right name.

If Sarah needed Hand over Hand prompt, she most likely was 100% accurate.

Assessing Accuracy

An student’s accurate response might be:• Picking up a correct choice• Moving his/her hand toward the choice

without picking it up• Stroking the correct choice • Eye gaze to the correct choice• Making a noise when a helper moves the

student’s hand to the correct choice

Levels of Assistance

Prompt levels• Independent• Verbal prompt• Tap prompt• Physical prompt

A student is given a Verbal prompt for one trial and nothing happens; then the student is given a Tap prompt. The student responds, record the greater level of prompting in your data.

For this trial, record Tap prompt.

Mos

t to

leas

t

Levels of AssistanceEach teacher decides the progression of student prompting and lists the prompts from most to least. Common abbreviations:

– HOH = hand over hand – HUH = hand under hand– TP = tap prompt– VIP = visual prompt– PP = physical prompt– AUD = auditory prompt– VP = verbal prompt

Levels of Assistance and Students with More Significant Disabilities

– Elbow prompt– Wrist prompt– Hand over Hand

Some students might require levels of assistance with finite difference to demonstrate progress

Prompting Ideas A student with a lot of resistance to touch/touching

new things might be assessed by:

– HOH 1:Prompting with some student involvement

– HOH 2:Complete prompting without student resistance

– HOH 3:Complete prompting with student resistance

Data collectionCapturing Independence

LOA captures the prompts the student needed to participate in the skill.

WID 1.1a Identifying pictures/symbols/objects/words that represent self and others

Sarah touched her name stamp and that of a classmate. When asked to find her name, level of independence captures the prompts Sarah needed to demonstrate her AAGSE skill.

If Sarah needed Hand over Hand prompt, she was not independent.

Example, Examples, and More Examples

What You Learned Today• Who are students with severe/profound

disabilities• Ideas for modifying materials for students with

severe/profound disabilities• Rethinking words• Data collection: Capturing level of accuracy,

level of independence, and levels of assistance• Examples, examples, and more examples

Contact Information• Cynthia Corbridge: RIDE cynthia.corbridge@ride.ri.gov or 222-8497• Phyllis Lynch: RIDE phyllis.lynch@ride.ri.gov or 222-4693• Susan Dell: The Sherlock Center sdell@ric.edu or 456-8557• Amy Grattan: The Sherlock Center agrattan@ric.edu or 456-8072