Assessing Needs and Identifying Outcomes

A thorough needs assessment provides the foundation for identifying appropriate goals and outcomes. (1,4,12,20) It should be conducted with the team (including family members) to gain a comprehensive understanding of the scope of the need and model collaboration. (12) Specific activities include:

• Collecting and analyzing child-specific information (e.g., medical reports, IEP, assessment data)
• In-depth discussions with team members: (12)
  • Create a “space for mutual learning” to clarify, adapt, and improve the TA request 
  • Keep in mind that team members may not always be able to easily articulate their needs (what they actually want and need may be different from their initial request)
• Use of specific instruments to define and quantify the needs of the child and characteristics of the classroom and school that impact the child
• Assessment of team member knowledge and skills

The tools and resources below link to a number of items that can be used to assess characteristics of students, programs, classrooms, and personnel, including various examples from state deaf-blind projects. There are also links to other resources that may be helpful during this phase. For example, the CEC intervener and teacher standards are not needs assessments but outline knowledge and skills recognized as important for working with children who are deaf-blind.

Although state deaf-blind projects don't typically conduct in-depth developmental or educational evaluations of children, they often recommend tools for teams to complete and provide advice about appropriate evaluation methods. Links to several common assessments as well as information pages on the NCDB website are provided below.

Needs assessment findings are used to determine specific goals and outcomes, (1, 4) which are typically related to:

• Increased team member knowledge and skills
• Child change
• Classroom change

Discussions with a team should result in very specific goals and outcomes (for the child and the adults) that can be realistically achieved given the resources of the team and the state deaf-blind project. For example, if the goal is for a student to use an object calendar, conversations might include the following questions:

• Will the administration release staff for the time needed to train, plan, and problem solve?
• Will parents be able to share information and help the team select objects?
• Can the state project provide support and training at the times the team has available?