A Curriculum-Based Instrument For Assessing Psychosocial Skills Of Children With Autism

Using a descriptive-developmental research design, the present study developed a psychosocial skills assessment instrument for children with autism based on the SPED Curriculum. The psychosocial skills assessment instrument for children with autism includes all the eleven learning standards with sixty specific skills of the SPED kindergarten curriculum with different activities, which are measured through the use of four-item rubrics. The assessment instrument is congruent with the objectives of the SPED Kindergarten Curriculum. The psychosocial skills assessment instrument was validated by six experts in the field of assessment and special education using a scale with the following criteria: Content, Instructional Quality and Usability. The assessment instrument gained a high mean rating based on the set criteria, which shows that the assessment instrument is valid. Using purposive sampling, the psychosocial skills assessment instrument was triedout with eight kindergarten children with autism. Data from the try-out was used to determine the test-retest reliability of the psychosocial skills assessment instrument. Results from the Pearson Moment correlation analysis yielded a high correlation coefficient (r=0.967), which implies that the assessment instrument has a very high degree of reliability. The developed psychosocial assessment instrument can be used to assess the psychosocial skills of children with autism to serve as basis for educational placement and instructional plan.