Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional BASC test?

What do you know about the Behavior Assessment for Children? It was a questionnaire that the school gave me to fill out about DS7, and his teachers (last year's and this year's) got some slightly different ones as well. This is in preparation for the doctor's visit that we have on Friday to see about Asperger's.

I knew when I filled it out that it was going to be bad, but we have what look to me like some truly horrific scores on this thing! I guess we'll have to see what the doctor says. I was just curious what anyone else might think about it.

Dh and I filled those out, as well as ds and a couple of teachers, for a very thorough assessment we had last year for ds, 8 at the time. It's been a while, but I think there are questions on it that might indicate add, aspergers, mood disorders, and probably other stuff.
I thought it was a pretty good assessment, though long, iirc. In the end we had 'normal' ratings from both teachers, myself and ds. Dh's and my ratings were a bit higher but not much. I thought it was good that they took this information from so many people, it helps you get a bit of a 'sanity' check. That is, even if mine was a little high on attention issues, when the teachers both rated ok on this, I felt a lot better that we were getting a broader picture of our ds.

Like all rating scales, the BASC is a subjective look at a child. Each person who fills it out has to do so through the lens of their own experiences with other children. One way to think about it is that there are two possible outcomes: high levels of agreement between home and school or low levels of agreement between home and school. In the first case, areas that are "at risk" or "clinically significant" appear to be present across environments, in which case there is a solid starting point for looking at needed interventions. In the second case (low agreement) there is the opportunity to whether or not the ratings differ based on perspective or on environmental differences. Both are good starting points for discussion, because the possibilities--actual environmental differences that support the child (and can now be considered for transfer to the other environments) or different understandings of how typical/atypical the behaviors are--can help to bring a team together to problem solve more effectively.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the BASC--by virtue of its focus on behaviors--is a point in time assessment. Ratings are not necessarily going to be stable over time because behavior is so impacted by environmental factors and supports.

Yeah, we've got quite a few "clinically significant" and "at-risk" things, some that agree between home and school and some that are not at quite the same level between the two. We talked to a lady at the Mental Health office, and have another appointment next week after she talks to the shrink, but we can't actually get in to see the shrink himself until February. That seems almost pointless, but it's better than nothing, I guess.

Wow, Feb.?? That does seem horribly far away! Sorry about the wait, that really is an awful thing to have to wait so long on.