There are so many free online assessments, screeners and checklists out there to support your evaluation that I thought I would share my two favourite. Both of these tools can provide an extensive amount of information and are a great additional resource to your collections.
Communication Matrix
- The Communication Matrix is an assessment tool designed to understand how an individual is communicating and guide the formulation of communication goals. This tool is particularly useful to assess the expressive communication skills of children who have severe or multiple disabilities. The Communication Matrix really breaks down ‘communication’ into a number of areas:
- Levels of Communication (e.g. pre-intentional behavior, conventional communication etc.)
- Reasons to Communicate (e.g. refuse, obtain, social and information)
- Categories of Communicative Behavior (e.g. body movements, facial expressions, simple gestures etc.)
This is a great tool to use independently or with families and other professionals and it provides a number of visual matrixes to view and understand the results.
M-CHAT
The M-CHAT (Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers) is another online tool that can be useful for screening autism and identify children 16 to 30 months who may need to receive a more thorough assessment for possible early signs of autism spectrum disorder or developmental delay. The M-CHAT is a questionnaire that you can score and view feedback online. The M-CHAT is also one of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended tools for screening.
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