Autism
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Evaluation meets requirements of Section 5 of Chapter 4, p.45 of the Idaho Special Education Manual 2007.
Student has a developmental disability, generally evident before age 3, that significantly affects verbal and
non-verbal communication and social interactions.
Student has documented diagnosis as having a disorder in the autism spectrum by school psychologist and
SLP; or psychiatrist or physician or licensed psychologist.
Condition adversely affects educational performance.
The student needs special education.
Certified eligible by the Evaluation Team.
3. ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION (All 3 following criteria must be documented to support eligibility)
Evaluation Team Assessment Summary: (Summarize the findings and document the disability based on Idaho
state criteria from the various forms of evaluation used to determine a present level of performance, including
assessments, observations, interviews, standards, and other relevant and current documentation.)
Speech testing indicates that Bill can make all sounds accurately at a single word level (GFTA 17%ile Standard Score=100) but begins to
delete final sounds and syllables when he makes longer utterances as in reading or conversation. When cued to slow down and say each
word Bill is able to increase his overall intelligibility by reducing the number of final sound and syllable deletions. His teachers report his
speech unintelligibility is a moderate to mild impact to education.
The results of language testing indicate that Bill at times will get confused with abstract meanings or the idioms used in conversation. He
will interpret then directions or the story content in a literal manner and has a difficult time seeing the perspective of another person.
When asked questions to explain his answer he will often repeat his first answer and is unable to give supporting facts or to expand on
the answer to provide more detail or information.
Bill's adaptive and behavioral skills require accommodation in the general and special education settings. He displays elevated behaviors
consistent with depression, attention problems, adaptability, leadership and functional communication skills. He also displays adaptive
concerns for coping skills and expressive/receptive communication skills. He is a typical sixth grader when considering other behavioral
and adaptive skills including academics, hyperactivity, social skills, aggression, and conduct problems. Bill is successful when discussing
and processing details and examples and struggles more to grasp the big ideas.
Based on the WIAT-III results, Bill's academic skills are well below average when compared to same age peers. He scored in the 10th
percentile for reading comprehension, numerical operations and math problems solving. He scored below the 10th percentile in
sentence combining, word reading and pseudoword decoding.
Bill has been diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. Bill had a psychoeducational evaluation March 27th, 2007. He was evaluated at the
Warm Springs Counseling Center and the report was prepared by James Connelly, Psy. D under the supervision of Scott Armentrout,
Ph.D. The following was reported: "Bill as the core features of Autistic Disorder. His adaptive functioning is in the low range indicating
significant delays. His mother's responses on the autism rating scale reveal that Bill has many observable behaviors that are common
with autism." Diagnoses, from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th Edition, Text Revised: 299 Autistic Disorder 314.01 Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Combined Type
Adverse Effect on Educational Performance: (Indicate evidence of the effect of the disability on the student’s
performance.)
Bill has Autism and ADHD, which affect many areas of his daily life. Bill's difficulties with attention, adaptability, and communication all
make it difficult for Bill to access the general education curriculum without accommodations. Students who are the same age as Bill are
able to maintain attention, make shifts in attention, as well as focus on the relevant details presented by the teacher. Bill's low academic
skills in reading and math also affect all of his academic classes, making it difficult for him to read grade level texts and assignments. He
struggles to maintain the pace and load of the reading content. Bill interprets things very literally so he also struggles to get implied or
inferred meaning from the text. In Math when asked to explain his answer or show another way to solve the problem Bill becomes
escalated and agitated and is unable to see other perspectives or an alternate solution. This leads to high levels of frustration. When
given writing prompts Bill is able to write simple responses. Bill struggles to provide detail or to tie several points of detail in to a big
picture.
In school and at home, Bill needs things to be broken down into small steps. He tends to become excited or upset to extreme without
finding a middle ground where he can express emotions while remaining calm. He benefits from problem-solving and social stories
strategies to deal with missing assignments, going to homework club, and interpreting humor. Bill sometimes has extreme emotions
when something doesn't go as expected or he is given constructive criticism about his work. He also has a difficult time keeping up with
Eligibility Example-Autism Secondary
the pace of the classroom, especially in writing. Bill’s peers are able to accommodate to the work load and pace presented by the general
education teachers. They are able to make adjustments when there are changes in routine or in expectations for assignments. When
peers are frustrated they use acceptable ways to vent frustration or anger and choose acceptable solutions to problem solve situations
that may arise in the classroom or with peers.
Reduced speech clarity impacts Bill's ability to present his ideas/answers clearly within an academic or social setting. This impacts Bill’s
ability to effectively send his message to the listener. This promotes frustration for him. Bill’s peers are able to make changes in their
voice speed and volume to adjust to their listener to promote effective communication.
His behavioral and adaptive skills require accommodation by staff and occasional support to teach strategies for and problem-solve
challenging situations. When Bill is presented with a social situation that does not play out the way he anticipates he struggles to come
up with alternate solutions or make adjustments to the situation. Bill’s peers are able to make adjustments and be flexible in social
situations to adapt to the environment and demands.
Need for Specially Designed Instruction: (Describe resources necessary to support the student to access and
progress in the general education curriculum.)
Bill continues to need specially designed instruction in the core academic areas of reading, written language and math to continue to
make academic gains. Bill has demonstrated that he is successful when using the modified curriculum. He has shown that he is able to
learn in small group settings that allow for adjustments in pacing and load of a subject. He has also shown that when he is able to
receive frequent feedback and direction while working on a task he is better able to apply the redirection. He needs accommodations to
the general education curriculum in his other classes, such as science and social studies, especially with reading material. Bill needs
modifications to assignments and tests, such as extra time for completion, less problems, modifications to the way problems are
answered and the use of notes for tests.
Bill needs to have direct social coaching and instruction on problem solving for social situation that come up with his general education
classes and with peers in less structured in other environments. Bill would benefit from receiving instruction in small groups to role play
and practice specific responses or problems solving strategies and then receive the social coaching to assist him in generalizing these
skills to the general ed classroom and the less structured environments like the commons area or lunch room.
The fact that Bill can make corrections or alterations to his speech production with just a verbal cue would indicate that he does not
need specially designed instruction but rather a consistent signal/cue system. Within speech therapy this year he has been introduced to
several systems such as tapping each word, and verbal cue to say each word. He has shown a great responsiveness to this and so this
should be considered as an accommodation to assist him in increasing his communication effectiveness.
Bill needs preferential seating and frequent checks for understanding from the teacher to ensure he is following instruction and
understanding tasks and assignments. Other accommodations are listed on Bill's IEP.
4. ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION
In consideration of the reported information, the evaluation team finds the student [ X] is [ ] is not eligible under
the category __Autism_____________________.
Eligibility Example-Autism Secondary