Unit 3: Types of Assessments Flashcards
Screening
A quick review of a patient’s status to determine if there is a need for further evaluation by a skilled occupational therapist. It can be more formal through a specific screening tool used to assess specific characteristics such as the Home Falls and Accidents Screening Tool (HOME FAST) or more informal or internally developed checklists that screen a person’s function in multiple areas.
Evaluation
Focused on finding out the client’s wants and needs and current abilities and to identify supports and barriers to performance. The evaluation process includes the occupational profile, the analysis of occupational performance, and the synthesis of this information to inform the intervention plan.
Assessment
A part of the evaluation process and is generally linked to a structured or semi-structured method of obtaining information about a clients performance, skills, abilities, goals, and occupational engagement. Assessments can be pre-developed formalized tools, interviews, or observations.
Standardized Assessments
Tools with sound psychometric properties (reliability and validity) that aim to collect client status and to monitor client progress over time.
- Have a consistent application and scoring procedure. If you do not complete the assessment as directed, you cannot assume the results of the test are accurate or can be interpreted as directed by the assessment tool manual/guidelines.
- Some will also have specific scripted instructions that must be followed exactly, others do not have a specific script.
Examples of Standardized Assessment with Specific Scripts:
Kohlman Evaluation of Living Skills (KELS), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and the Peabody Developmental Motor Scale
Examples of Standardized Assessments Without Specific Scripts:
Sensory Profile, Barthel Index, Pain scale
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Non-Standardized Assessments
Informal but they utilize a therapist’s clinical observations and reasoning skills to identify important information regarding the clients’ abilities.
Do not have psychometric properties (reliability or validity) associated with the assessment.
Norm Referenced
-Compare a client’s scores to others who have also been scored using the assessment tool.
-Typically, you compare the client to a similar group of people, meaning you need to be careful about the ages, populations, and diagnoses for whom the tool has been normed.
You could not compare a 3 year olds scores on a norm-referenced assessment that has normative values for people over 18 years old. -Tell a clinician how similar or different their client performs relative to a like group of individuals who have also been given the assessment.
Criterion Referenced
Have cut-scores.
These types of assessments grade a client on different items and through research the assessment developers have determined that at a certain score something is more likely to occur for that person.
For example, in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment if a person scores below a 25 they are considered to have a cognitive impairment. 25 is the cut-score for determining cognitive impairment based on studies that determined that people who have a cognitive impairment typically score below this threshold.
Ipsative Referenced
Measure a person’s performance against their previous performance, not in relation to any other person.
Descriptive Assessments
- Used to assess the characteristics of a person to determine areas of strength and opportunities for improvement.
- Assessment data can be collected through interview, observation, or caregiver report. Collecting information for the occupational profile can be considered a descriptive assessment.
Evaluative Assessments
Useful for comparing quantifiable data over time.
-For example, the Tinetti Balance assessment can be used to rate a person’s balance and fall risk at evaluation, and then repeatedly over the course of treatment to determine if any improvements or further decline occur.
