AEPS Assessment Lab Reflection Your Role My role during the assessment was child facilitator.

For this lab, I facilitated three different centers and a snack time with Hope. The three centers my team and I planned were: art, gross motor, and literacy. We planned these activities based on Hopes interests, which we learned beforehand from Hopes mom, Beth. We learned that Hope loves books, letters, and animals before the assessment. For example, we learned that Hope loves Sesame Street, so we incorporated Sesame Street books into our literacy center. My role was to move Hope through these centers, spending about fifteen minutes in each of the three centers. This allowed for fifteen minutes for snack time and dismissal. I felt I performed my role to the best of my ability. The part I struggled with most was transitioning Hope from one center to another. I believe I may not have been straight-forward or firm enough when moving from one center to the next. I asked Hope if she wanted to go to the next activity the first few times, and she simply responded with no. I believe this was a fair answer since I asked her what she whether or not she wanted to go. As the lab went on, I started to tell Hope that we were going to another center. For example, when we were in the literacy center, Hope seemed highly engaged and did not want to stop reading books. After I had asked her twice if whether or not she would like to go to the art center, I decided to tell her that we needed to go there. I told her she could draw pictures, practice cutting, and gave more examples of activities we had set up there. She seemed more excited about moving to this activity after she was informed of what was at that station. So, I learned which strategies worked best with Hope as the assessment lab progressed. She seemed to respond better to explanations and statements than open-ended questions.

I believe I encouraged and interacted with Hope as well as I could. I have not spent much time with children with Downs syndrome before, so this was a new experience for me. I was glad to have the opportunity, and I felt empowered by the connection I formed with Hope in the short time I was with her. She was an amazing little girl. She astounded us all with her expertise on letters, animals, and her love of reading. Family Our group did our best to make Hope and her mom feel comfortable with the lab setting. I believe we had an advantage, though, because we heard that Hope and her mom have participated in the lab for many years now. We sent our parent facilitator to the door to greet Hope and her mom at arrival. Then, we all were standing and facing the door as the two came into the classroom. Hopes mom asked where we would like her to be, and we encouraged her to do whatever she felt comfortable doing. She ended up staying in the back of the classroom and seemed to want to keep from interrupting the assessment. This was definitely a contrast from our last assessment. The other parent we worked with sat with the child and child facilitator and helped with play and transitions. I believe it may have been beneficial to have Hopes mothers help with transitions especially. I think she would have been able to offer some techniques that typically work with Hope when moving her from one activity to the next at home or at school. When the group shared with Hopes mom and asked her questions at the end of the assessment, I was playing with Hope. During the team debriefing, I learned that Hopes mom informed the group members things that they were working on at home and other behaviors that are typical with Hope. For example, she told us that Hope uses special scissors at school that have been adapted to her needs. I had tried to use typical child sized scissors when encouraging Hope to cut. During this part of the assessment, Hopes mom did say, She may not be able to

do that. I was not sure if this skill was developing or what the root of the challenge was, but the debriefing cleared that up. I do not think Hopes mom had many questions or concerns. From what I heard, our team did our best to emphasize that we were practicing using this tool. I did not hear that the parent expressed any questions or concerns to the team. Assessment Tool Since I was the child facilitator, I did not delve into a particular part of the AEPS assessment. In my practice with the tool for our homework, I learned that the goals in each section go from easiest to hardest, but the objectives within each goal are listed from hardest to easiest. The tool was useful in the amount of detail the manual provided. In each section, each goal and objective was broken down and explained, listing activities that correspond with the goal or objective. I believe that even though the tool is highly detailed, it is explained well. I think that I would become even more familiar with the usefulness of this tool with more time and experience. I also liked that the score sheets left space for multiple assessments and multiple ways of scoring each goal and objective. I think that using both the number and letter scoring system is a great way of scoring in that it is specific to the school and useful for planning. Planning As the child facilitator, I was able to observe some things I may want to work on with Hope. This is challenging, though, since I did not assess Hope in a particular domain. I noticed some emerging skills in fine motor, such as manipulating objects with two hands. I believe Hope lacks some strength that is needed in her hands to perform tasks like opening and closing markers and scissors, just as an example. Other things I noticed were that Hope did not jump, but I did not hear whether this was refusal or an emerging skill. Also, I believe that those who

assessed Hopes social-communication skills may have been able to come up with many goals to increase her verbal communication. All I observed were one or two-word utterances, and I heard Hopes mom mention that they were constantly working to increase Hopes independent utterances. We mostly talked about the skills and behaviors that were positive in our observation of Hope in our debriefing, but I know that each team member learned about some skills that Hope did not exhibit in the lab, but can do. Self-evaluation There are some things I would do differently next time as the child facilitator. First, I would plan to do the less desirable activities first during the assessment. I believe it was so challenging to transition Hope to a new activity because of her love of books and reading. While we thought starting here may be a good way to make her comfortable and engaged, I think it ended up making things more difficult in the schedule. Hope was willing to do the other activities with some coaxing, but I think it would have been easier had we started with a less desirable activity. I also would encourage the parent facilitator to ask questions about transitioning for planning. For example, we could have asked Beth, What strategies works best at home when you want to move Hope from one activity to another? These are some examples of things I think would have helped me perform my role a bit better. I am glad we had the opportunity to practice the AEPS assessment lab. I was also glad I was able to practice the child facilitator role. I look forward to possibly experiencing a different role and practicing more assessments in order to best plan for instruction for my students.