Needs-based Assessment of Students with (suspicion of) Intellectual Giftedness and/or an Autism Spectrum Disorder: Design of a Heuristic

Abstract

This contribution presents the design of a theoretically grounded assessment Heuristic concerning students with (suspicion of) the coexistence of Intellectual Giftedness and an Autism Spectrum Disorder (IG+ASD). This Heuristic focuses at various cognitive and psycho-social Strengths and Weaknesses (S&Ws) and is called the S&W Heuristic. It deals with the discrepancy between the lack of a theoretically grounded coherent view on assessment and intervention issues concerning students with (suspicion of) IG+ASD and the concomitant problem of biased diagnoses in psycho-educational practice. It aims at a systematic connection between assessment and intervention-indications, by way of systematic dimensional needs-based assessment. One of its merits is that the assessment departs from IG+ASD characteristics, instead of IG-characteristics apart from ASD-symptoms, so that camouflage and underachievement might be detected more easily. The S&W Heuristic is explorative in nature and serves as a point of departure in theory-development and psycho-educational praxis concerning IG+ASD and may be Twice-Exceptionalities in general. Keywords

Assessments of intellectually gifted students with(out) characteristic(s) of ASD: An explorative evaluation among diagnosticians in various psycho-educational organisations

“…The S&W Heuristic (Burger-Veltmeijer et al, 2014) has three fundamental and novel principles: 1. The characteristics in Table 1 serve as dimensions that can be assessed in a comprehensive assessment.…”

“…It was analysed whether these data were present in the dossier, and if so, whether or not the initial question In the S&W Heuristic it is emphasized that the S&Ws should be translated per dimension into Special Psycho-Educational Needs (SPENs) (Burger-Veltmeijer et al, 2014). It was analysed whether such translations were present in the dossiers, either explicitly described in terms of needs, or rather implicitly described in terms of an integral discussion or in terms of recommendations.…”

Intellectually gifted students with possible characteristics of ASD: a multiple case study of psycho-educational assessment practices

“…Especially NBA targets relevant risks as well as protective factors, such as strengths and weaknesses (S&Ws), concerning the individual students as well as the educational and home environment. Contrary to classification-based assessment, NBA is not aimed at diagnostic labelling, but rather at recommendations for educational and/or psychological interventions in order to address a student's Special psycho-Educational Needs (SpENs) (Burger-Veltmeijer 2014). According to pameijer (2006), NBA looks for the 'goodness of fit' between the child's needs and the environmental provisions.…”

“…Assouline, Foley Nicpon, and Doobay 2009;Burger-Veltmeijer 2007;Burger-Veltmeijer, Minnaert, and Van Houten-Van den Bosch 2011;Foley Nicpon, Allmon, et al 2011;Foley Nicpon, Doobay, and Assouline 2010;Huber 2007). Recently, Burger-Veltmeijer, Minnaert, and Van den Bosch (2014) constructed a conceptual framework, called the Strengths and Weaknesses Heuristic (S&W Heuristic), in order to tune assessment outcomes of students with (suspicion of) intellectually gifted (IG) + ASD with intervention indications in such a way that biased assessments, directed at either Strengths (Ss) or Weaknesses (Ws), could be reduced and that a well-founded interconnection between assessment data and intervention indications could be established. It might provide systematicity and coherence in both psycho-educational research and praxis, regarding assessments of students with (suspicion of ) IG + ASD.…”

“…Some core concepts will be elaborated hereafter in a nutshell. Interested readers can read more in the original publications of Burger-Veltmeijer, Minnaert, and Van den Bosch (2014, 2015, which are available on the internet.…”