The past two decades have witnessed a proliferation of research dealing with dynamic-interactive assessment as an alternative to conventional psychometric measures. This book establishes dynamic assessment as a useful approach that complements standardized normative tests in portraying an accurate picture of cognitive functioning and offering a more adequate assessment of handicapped persons and persons with learning disabilities.

The past two decades have witnessed a proliferation of research dealing with dynamic-interactive assessment as an alternative to conventional psychometric measures. This book establishes dynamic assessment as a useful approach that complements standardized normative tests in portraying an accurate picture of cognitive functioning and offering a more adequate assessment of handicapped persons and persons with learning disabilities.

Dynamic assessment embeds interaction within the framework of a test-intervene-retest approach to psychoeducational assessment. This book offers an introduction to diagnostic assessors in psychology, education, and speech/language pathology to the basic ideas, principles, and practices of dynamic assessment. Most importantly, the book presents an array of specific procedures developed and used by the authors that can be applied to clients of all ages in both clinical and educational settings. The authors discuss their approach to report-writing, with a number of examples to demonstrate how they incorporate dynamic assessment into a comprehensive approach to assessment. The text concludes with a discussion of issues and questions that need to be considered and addressed. Two appendixes include descriptions of additional tests used by the authors that are adapted for dynamic assessment, as well as information about dynamic assessment procedures developed by others and sources for additional information about this approach.

The terms interactive and dynamic would never have been associated with psychological and psychoeducational assessment a generation ago. They have currency now because of widespread dissatisfaction with the normative, standardized testing model, criticism of theoretical concepts of intelligence, recognition of abuses of standardized intelligence testing, and frustration with prediction and classification as primary goals of assessment. It is almost certainly true that public policy concerns propel scientific activity far more often than science propels public policy! In the case of psychological assessment, public policy concerns have arisen in the last 20 years primarily around issues of possible "discrimination" against members of ethnic minorities. At the same time, there has been a re surgence of dedication to "excellence in education" goals. These concerns have led to such extreme measures as prohibition of the use of standard ized intelligence tests to determine school placement decisions, especially for minority children. They have led also to a search for alternatives to standardized, normative testing. The chapters in this volume represent a variety of answers to this need.

This book portrays an extensive and intensive discussion of theories and research that refer to Vygotsky’s and Feuerstein’s theories of mediated learning and their effects on learning potential and cognitive modifiability. Most topics are discussed in relation to a broad spectrum of developmental and cognitive research that are under the conceptual umbrella of mediated learning and cognitive modifiability. Some topics such as neural plasticity, executive functions, mental rotation, and cognitive education are related to mediated learning, though indirectly, and therefore are included in this book. In many ways the book presents an extension of Vygotsky and Feuerstein’s theories and empirical validation in a variety of family, social and cultural contexts. The book includes a thorough analysis and summary of 50 years of research and methodology of the intimate relation between mediated learning interactions and cognitive modifiability and of dynamic assessment underlying measurement of cognitive modifiability. Special emphasis is given to Tzuriel’s dynamic assessment instruments developed during more than four decades. Tzuriel’s novel instruments are interwoven in the extensive research on parent-child interactions, siblings’ , teachers' and peers' mediation and in validation of dynamic assessment approach and cognitive education programs aimed at development of thinking skills and academic achievements.

The debate surrounding testing and accountability in early childhood education continues, but one thing is universally agreed upon: effective observation and assessment of young children's learning are critical to supporting their development. Educators balance what they know about child development with observation and assessment approaches that both inform and improve the curriculum. This foundational resource for all educators of children from birth through third grade explores What observation and assessment are, why to use them, and how Ways to integrate documentation, observation, and assessment into the daily routine Practices that are culturally and linguistically responsive Ways to engage families in observation and assessment processes How to effectively share children's learning with families, administrators, and others Find inspiration to intentionally develop and implement meaningful, developmentally appropriate observation and assessment practices to build responsive, joyful classrooms.

This is a practical, accessible manual for Speech and Language Therapists, Educational Psychologists and Educators who assess children with language impairments, explaining how and why to implement Dynamic Assessment and gives you a huge range of ready-to-use, practical tools. Where normal assessments simply identify deficits, Dynamic Assessment also identifies the child's potential to learn by allowing for prompts from you, during the assessment, thus far better informing your decisions about appropriate interventions and strategies to help the children you work with. What does this manual offer? Provides a concise introduction to the principles of Dynamic Assessment to make clear the enormous benefits of applying this approach to the assessment of language. Presents a full example of a Dynamic Assessment of Sentence Structure (DASS) to demonstrate how the principles are implemented and the findings applied to plan more effective interventions. All the materials for the DASS are included so that you can use this assessment immediately. Includes numerous templates, generic prompt sheets, score sheets and materials that you can adapt for use in Dynamic Assessments that you devise yourself. Written by Dr Natalie Hasson, a highly experienced Speech and Language Therapist who leads the field in researching the dynamic assessment of language, this is the only Dynamic Assessment manual of its kind.