Interactive Dynamic Assessment, A Diagnostic Tool For Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Research Methodology: The purpose of this qualitative research was to use ethnography, a naturalistic inquiry (studying interventions for readers and writers in an everyday environment) and by observing and listening to how a child learned. All the children diagnosed with FASD experienced difficulty with integrating components of comprehension during reading and had trouble in writing. (1) Participant observation was used to view these readers and writers who struggled to meet grade level expectations especially in reading as schools participated in differentiating students and questioning their underachievement rather than question how practices can be adapted to meet the learners’ needs. Reading comprehension depends upon field text techniques used for documenting in-school literacy interventions which are diagnostic tools applied during reading, drawing or writing tasks. Having a solid foundation in oral language and a large vocabulary will help children become successful readers and strong communicators as well as build their confidence and overall sense of well-being. Proficient readers have a large vocabulary and a wide-range experience. They are aware of why they are reading a text, as the gain an overview of the text before reading to stimulate prior knowledge, make predictions about the upcoming text, read selectively based on their overview, associate ideas in text to what they already know, note whether their predictions and expectations about text content are being making sense. If not, they revise their prior knowledge when compelling new ideas conflicting with prior knowledge are encountered, figure out the meanings of the text. While less-skilled readers are often bogged down in the reading process and are placed in resource rooms working on a workbook curriculum and misses the social connections that are paramount in the classroom [4]. (2) Field notes were collected from general observations which are the written account of what the researcher sees, hears, experiences, and thinks in the course of collecting and reflecting on reading and writing skills and how the child responds were collected over seven to ten-years. (3) Teacher interviews on the formative progress of their students about reading were conferenced. One of which was word recognition and the other was reading comprehension throughout the reading process and learning about dynamic assessment as a measure using rubrics rather than using grade levels. There is a sizable volume of research on how children learn to read and write on their educational journey. Unfortunately, the development of these skills and assessments that are predecessors to conventional reading and writing abilities for learners are absent for readers with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Due to the range of effects that can occur in an individual whose mother consumed alcohol during pregnancy children with a diagnosis of FASD often lack the implicit processes and tacit knowledge that underpins reading, writing, and communicative skills. Children diagnosed with FASD, a spectrum of conditions caused by prenatal alcohol exposure, struggle academically in school [1]. The damage manifests in a range of difficulties with adaptive behaviour, attention, cognition, executive functioning and memory. As a result, individuals with FASD may have trouble with abstract reasoning, organization, planning, understanding or recalling a sequence of events, connecting cause and effect relationships, due to the impulsivity, frustration and/ or regulating their own behaviours and emotions. Their disability often leads to lower reading, writing, and oral and social skills, in addition to a loss of self-esteem. In most cases, many have reduced school completion rates, and disruptive emotional behaviours resulting in behavioral program placements.