Assessments--To do, or not to do?

This week we were asked to give our thoughts on assessments. Should we as OTA's, be able to give the M Fun assessments to our little friends in kindergarten and first grade. I do believe we showed that we could administer this test successfully. As we have all demonstrated this past week, giving the assessment is the easy part. It was great to sit down with my first grade friend, and administer the test. He was excited to participate, and I believe that he gave it his best effort. He was focused much of the time, and I only saw a brief period of frustration as he tried to fold the dog in the origami portion of the assessment. Other than that, he seemed to enjoy doing all of the activities contained in this assessment.
Now, going back and grading the assessment was, in and of itself, frustrating beyond measure. I was quite shocked at the amount of reading, and more reading, and then reading some more to figure out how and where to find certain numbers. It seemed to me that I could have spent days going over each section and then hopefully remembering what went where!
If we are going to be administering these assessments, after establishing service competency with our OT's, I for one, will be doing alot more practicing on my own. I surely would not want to be out in a school setting with my supervisor, and have them wait for the assessment results. I would probably have to offer to send them to dinner, then a movie, and then a late night snack before I got the results posted to where they needed to be!!!!
In my opinion, we as OTA's could be of a huge benefit in a public school setting. The amount of children needing OT services is huge, and the wait list, even longer. I have seen first hand the child who had his handwriting assessed one month, and the OT was not seen again for months. This just proved to me the shortage of OT's and OTA's in the public school system. We could add so much as far as targeting the needs of our little folks. Even though we would have to travel from school to school, it seems a small price to pay to help these kids to achieve so much. What seems so simple as helping to increase hand strength, or working to get the correct grasp on a pencil, is huge to these kids. The foundation is set at a very young age, and if we could get in there early, we could have a huge impact on a successful outcome. Our little ones would benefit greatly from early intervention, but the shortage of OT's and OTA's in the school systems is not helping this matter. For those that want to pursue a path within the school systems, I have to say, the road does not sound like it will be easy. From what we hear, the jobs are few and far between. I am hopeful that someone somewhere, will take a closer look at the challenges that are facing our little people. I am equally hopeful that the budget restrictions will ease enough that OTA's will be seen as critical parts of the puzzle. From what I hear, there are quite a few OTA's that would love to work on a daily basis with the little folks. Anyone up to advocating for this?!?!?!?!
I have included a picture that I am sure shows what I looked like as I was trying to figure out the whole grading thing!!!! Just click on the title!