ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the foundation for thinking about assessment as it applies to educational therapists (ET). Assessment is much more than administering a set of instruments and obtaining scores. It is imperative to observe and note self-regulatory behaviors such as level of engagement, attention, sustained attention, mental energy, effort, and persistence. Some educational therapists use an assessment battery to measure a student’s strengths, weaknesses, processing skills and approaches to tasks. Many ETs use a variety of standardized and non-standardized measures in their assessment battery. A normed assessment instrument is objective and measures against a group much larger than the ET’s client base. Assessment is a continuous process for the ET that need not necessarily mean using an assessment instrument. Observation, task analysis, error analysis and monitoring the student’s approach to learning within and between sessions are also valuable forms of assessment.
