Dynamic Assessment and Intervention

Test Information

• Non-standardized assessment used to measure narrative ability.
• No ages specified
• Subtests include a testing phase, a mediation phase, and a retest phase.
• Measures skills associated with narration, including story components, story ideas and language, and episode structure

Requirements for Testing

• Examiners should be teachers or speech language pathologists.
• Test materials include two wordless picture books, "Two Friends" and "Bird & His Ring", and scoring sheets.
• May require two hours, enough time to go through two books and do two 20 minute mediation sessions.

Scoring and Results

• Scoring is completed by hand.
• Aspects of narrative ability are judged before and after mediation sessions. After the re-test session, the child's degree of change is determined. From this information, conclusions are determined which will place the child in one of three language learner designations.

Case Study

• Charlie is a 7 year old 2nd grade student who is having difficulty in school...

Impressions

• Advantages: Results of this assessment easily translate into treatment.
• Disadvantages: Does not give a standard score or compare the child to other children his/her age.
• I would include this assessment because it gives a holistic look at the child and provides the examiner with a good place to start for intervention

Explanation to Professionals

• Dynamic Assessment and Intervention is a non-standardized assessment which looks at the child's ability to generate a narrative. Elements of the story are judged and areas of weakness are identified. After areas of weakness are identified, two targets are chosen and worked on during the mediation phase.

Explanation to Professionals

• During this phase the child is given strategies in order to help them to increase their ability to include the story element. After the mediation phase, the child is re-tested and changes in their narrative ability are determined.

Explanation to Professionals

• Based on their abilities to use what they learned during the mediation phase, the examiner can recommend whether the child will benefit from intervention. Goals for intervention can be determined using the score sheets from the testing phases