Dynamic Assessment of Preschool Children with Special Needs

This study compared two methods of intervention in a test-teach-test (dynamic) assessment with 43 special needs preschool children who were demonstrating a variety of language, behavioral, and learning difficulties. The Children's Analogical Thinking Modifiability Test (Tzuriel & Klein, 1987), a dynamic assessment instrument, was administered to two groups of nonrandomly assigned children in four phases: baseline, pretest, teaching, and posttest. During the teaching phase, 21 children received instruction that was contingent upon their particular difficulties and that emphasized the acquisition of generalizable strategies. The remaining 16 children received prescripted, noncontingent instruction when they required assistance. Group composition and pretest performance were found to be nearly identical. Results indicated that the group receiving contingent, individualized instruction (referred to as mediation) performed significantly better on the posttest, while the performance of the group receiving prescripted instruction remained unchanged. Two components of the mediation procedure, specific feedback about performance as compared with general feedback and justification of the process required for solution, were proposed as critical variables for improving the performance of special needs children during dynamic assessment.