Intellectual Development
Educators in the United States public school classroom often work with children of varying levels of ability. Children in your classroom may have Individualized Education Plans (IEP) that require specific accommodations and modifications. As part of the process of an IEP, a school psychologist evaluates the child's intellectual functioning using a variety of intellectual and achievement tests. Once the IEP meeting takes place, various providers (including possibly speech therapy and occupational therapy) will also be present at the meeting. For the purpose of this discussion, we focus specifically on the role of a school psychologist and intelligence testing using a case study from your textbook. . In addition to using the case study as support for your initial reply, read and include support from the article Intelligence: Foundations and Issues in Assessment (Gottfredson & Saklofske, 2009).
Case Study: Please refer to the case study in the attachment. After reading the case study and article, reflect on the following in your initial reply:
Discuss the importance of intelligence testing and one of the controversies discussed in the article and/or the course textbook.
Explain whether or not it would have been appropriate for Dr. Williams to provide some hints to help the child during testing. Why or why not?
Discuss whether or not you believe an intelligence test would provide enough information to make a decision about Robin's educational placement. Why or why not? If not, what other information should Dr. Williams gather?
Considering that Robin is a very young child, explain how her age could factor into the decision in favor of or against placement into a special education program.
Describe other factors (e.g., environmental, genetic, biological, etc.) that may be contributing to Robin's performance and IQ score during testing (without mentioning any diagnoses).