School Psychologists Association of S.E. Manitoba
Present: Michelle Bahuaud, Chantal Shilliday, Toni Cascegna, Brian Lee, Ron Teffaine, Mike Hogan, Chris Franz, Suzanne Golden, Jonathon Cooper, Jeremy Davidson, Dr. Karen Pain, Louise Lelievre, and Jo-Anne Burt.
This meeting was hosted by Ron Teffaine, Mike Hogan, and Chris Franz from Hanover SD. Thank you to all who attended and participated.
Minutes
Ron Teffaine - presented the DSM-IV-TR model of diagnosing learning disabilities or Learning Disorders as it is referred to in the manual. Unlike other models, this one allows the diagnosis of LD for individuals below the Average range, as long as there is a "severe discrepancy" between aptitude and achievement that is not accounted for by other factors. The lowest aptitude would be for an individual within the Mild range of mental retardation, because they are still using the provincial curricula, not an individualized one.
Chris Franz - presented the "Cross-Battery" model of diagnosing LDs. In this model, individuals can only be diagnosed with a LD if their aptitude is no more than 1 standard deviation below the mean (i.e., 85). This is a "consistency" model, meaning that deficient cognitive processes must be associated with deficient academic weaknesses in order for the diagnosis to occur. Similar to this model is the "Concordance-Discordance" model developed by Dr. James Hale. It has more statistical precision, but at this time is more difficult because the statistics must be done by hand. The Cross-Battery model includes spreadsheet software that makes it easy to calculate.
Mike Hogan - presented a model for diagnosing dyslexia based on research from Virginia Berninger at the University of Washington. The model specifies how to use various psychological instruments in the process (e.g., WISC-IV, WIAT-II, GORT-IV, PAL-II, NEPSY-II, etc.). This model is quite strict in that only individuals with IQs no lower than 90 can be diagnosed with dyslexia. There are many possible processing deficits that can contribute to a reading disorder, however, only one is required for a diagnosis.
Michelle Bahuaud - presented on a number of new topics from MECY. For example, she reported about the development of a Learning Disabilities support document, an attendance problem review, a new document for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, an EA support document, remote child & adolescent mental health workshops, core competency workshops, First Steps to Literacy, Bullying Not In My School (has a DVD), Response to Intervention & the 3-Tier system, and pupil file management.
Next Meeting - will be on February 5, 2009. Suzanne Golden volunteered to inquire about hosting the meeting in a St. Norbert school. Dr. Karen Pain will look into setting up a visitation to the University of Manitoba for 1/2 a day. Ron Teffaine mentioned that he could present his PowerPoint on the DANVA-2 & NEPSY-II Social Perception Battery next time.