DDS evaluations

COMPONENTS OF AN EVALUATION

Medical/Educational History provides background to the individual's medical status impacting performance. The educational history, which includes the participant's computer background, provides insight into the type of hardware and software and the training that will be necessary for effective utilization of technology .

Vision Screening determines the individual's acuity and computer tracking ability (i.e. following a cursor on the screen).

Hearing Screening determines the participant's ability to discriminate sounds in words.

Expressive and Receptive Testing to determine the expressive and receptive age equivalency which is especially important for lower functioning individuals.

LOSS is the Level of Symbolization Screening used to determine what level the participant is effectively interpreting, such as objects, pictures, icons or more abstract pictures, or the written word.

Motor Status and Positioning is performed when the individual has a physical disability. Testing is performed to facilitate access to the computer.

A language comprehension assessment determines how long of an utterance or sentence the individual (including older clients) can process. It provides information of how many critical elements or key words he comprehends. An example of 2 critical elements would be “horse standing”, 3 critical elements would be “cat and dog eating”.

Modality Testing determines how an individual remembers information. Does he/she recall information best when it is presented in visual, auditory, or kinesthetic (hands on) presentation.