This proposal requests Department of Education support for EDMARK, a small business in Bellevue, Washington, to develop and field- test a hardware/software package to address the problem of the screening of young children with possible disabilities by teachers and paraprofessionals. Public Law 99-457 requires the identification and provision of services to young children with disabilities. Qualified psychologists may not be available to school districts, Headstart programs, and other agencies, however, due to lack of qualified personal, remote location, or other reasons. A paraprofessional, (including parents, classroom aides, and volunteers) and preschool and elementary teachers, could make initial screenings, however, with the help of a microcomputer-based system. The key hardware element which makes this project feasible is a low-cost touch sensitive screen overlay, the Touch Window, which can accept the pointing and drawing responses of young children directly. Software will display carefully controlled stimuli for the correct length of time and record the child's response precisely. Branching responses of the program will mimic an expert psychologist in deciding which tasks are appropriate next. Scoring will be done internally, and results reported with the correct cautions and interpretations integrated into the results.Key words: Preschool, early childhood, disabilities, screening, assessment, computers, 99-457, rural
Anticipated Results:The end product will be a relatively low-cost system of hardware/software for use with widely available microcomputers which would allow initial determination of cognitive functioning, learning disabilities, and learning styles for children with developmental ages from 3 to 10 years. In phase I, EDMARK will field-test the first module of screening software with the Touch-Window interface The Anticipated Department of Education funding will support the work of EDMARK personnel and consultants in placing prototype hardware/software units in a variety of test sites. Child and paraprofessional responses will be assessed. Validity of the screenings will be examined. In Phase II, additional testing modules will be developed and larger scale field trials will occur.Topic 4: Development of or adaptation of innovative technologies to support the assessment of children with disabilities in cognitive, language, perceptual-motor, academic, vocational, or social proficiency demands.
