Previous Award Number: R324A110177
Previous Awardee: Vanderbilt University

Purpose: Individuals with intellectual or developmental disability may require ongoing support to participate in typical life activities, such as navigating the neighborhood. In order to identify the supports needed by adults with intellectual disabilities, an assessment called the Supports Intensity Scale has been developed, validated, and adopted worldwide. However, no equivalent assessment for children with intellectual or developmental disabilities exists. The research team will develop an adapted version of the assessment for children with disabilities. The Supports Intensity Scale for Children will be designed to be used easily by teachers and related service providers with input from parents to assess the support needs of children with intellectual or developmental disabilities from 5 to 16 years old.

Project Activities: Children with intellectual or developmental disabilities and teachers from across the country will participate in this research project. A series of five studies will be conducted to: (1) establish the reliability and validity of the Supports Intensity Scale for Children instrument; (2) calibrate scale scores resulting from the Supports Intensity Scale for Children with those from the adult version of the assessment; (3) determine how the items relate to typically developing children; (4) assess the ease of use and utility of the Supports Intensity Scale for Children for developing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs); and (5) examine the association between the Supports Intensity Scale for Children and the supports identified in the IEPs.

Products: The products of this study include a fully developed and validated Supports Intensity Scale for Children, training modules and manuals, publications, and presentations.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The research will take place within 50 school districts across the country.

Population: Children with intellectual or developmental disabilities between the ages of 5 and 18 from across the nation will participate.

Intervention: The Supports Intensity Scale for Children is a tool to assist teachers and related service providers with input from parents in identifying the intensity of support a child with an intellectual disability will need to participate fully in school and the community.

Research Design and Methods: Nearly 1,500 students with intellectual or developmental disabilities aged 5 through 18 will be drawn from schools across the country, stratified by age, representing a range of characteristics including gender, economic status, race, level of intellectual disability, and ethnicity. They will all be administered the Supports Intensity Scale for Children, but the 17- and 18-year-old children in this sample will also take the adult version of the instrument in order to align the two measures. Extant data from another 1,500 students with intellectual or developmental disabilities will also be analyzed for validity and reliability of the measure. Finally, the research team will conduct focus groups, surveys, interviews and observations to evaluate student outcomes, the ease and utility of the Supports Intensity Scale for Children when developing IEPs, and the items relevant to typically developing students.

Control Condition: There is no control group.

Key Measures: One key measure is the adult version of the Supports Intensity Scale for Children assessment that will be used with 17- and 18-year-old students. Student IEPs will be evaluated to compare those IEPs written by teachers who are using the Supports Intensity Scale for Children to those who are not using the assessment.

Data Analytic Strategy: Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis and multi-level structural equation modeling (SEM) will be used to examine the reliability and validity of the assessment. Pearson's product coefficients will be generated for inter-interview reliability, inter-respondent reliability, mixed inter-rater reliability, and test-retest reliability. To calibrate the child and adult versions of the Supports Intensity Scale, the researchers will use item response theory for ordinal scores and SEM for interval scores.

Products and Publications

Book

Thompson, J. R., Wehmeyer, M. L., Hughes, C., Shogren, K. A., Seo, H., Little, T. D.,.. Tassé, M. J. (2016). Supports Intensity Scale— Children's Version (SIS—C) User's Manual. American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Retrieved from https://www.aaidd.org/sis/sis-c.

Book chapter

Thompson, J.R., Hughes, C., Walker, V., DeSpain, S. (in press). Measuring support needs and support planning. In M.L. Wehmeyer & K.A. Shogren (Eds.),Handbook of research based practices in educating students with intellectual disability. New York: Routledge.

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Seo, H., Little, T.D., Shogren, K.A., and Lang, K.M. (2016). On the Benefits of Latent Variable Modeling for Norming Scales: The Case of the Supports Intensity Scale – Children's Version. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 40(4): 373–384. doi:10.1177/0165025415591230

Seo, H., Shogren, K. A., Little, T. D., Thompson, J. R., and Wehmeyer, M. L. (2016). Construct Validation of the Supports Intensity Scale – Children and Adult Versions: An Application of a Pseudo Multi trait-Multimethod Approach. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 121(6): 550–563. doi:10.1352/1944–7558–121.6.550

Seo, H., Shogren, K.A., Wehmeyer, M.L., Hughes, C., Thompson, J.R., Little, T.D., and Palmer, S.B. (2016). Exploring Shared Measurement Properties and Score Comparability Between Two Versions of the Supports Intensity Scale. Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals, 39: 216–226. doi:10.1177/2165143415583499

Shogren, K. A., Wehmeyer, M. L., Seo., H., Thompson, J. R., Schalock, R. L., Hughes, C., Little, T. D., and Palmer, S. B. (2016). Examining the Reliability and Validity of the Supports Intensity Scale-Childrens Version in Children With Autism and Intellectual Disability. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities. doi: 10.1177/1088357615625060 Full text

Shogren, K.A., Seo, H., Wehmeyer, M.L., Thompson, J.R., Hughes, C., Little, T.D., and Palmer, S.B. (2015). Support Needs of Children With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Age-Related Implications for Assessment. Psychology in the Schools, 52(9): 874–891. doi:10.1002/pits.21863

Thompson, J.R., Wehmeyer, M.L., Hughes, C., Shogren, K.A., Palmer, S.B., and Hyojeong, S. (2014). The Supports Intensity Scale–Children's Version: Preliminary Reliability and Validity. Inclusion, 2(2): 140–149. doi:10.1352/2326–6988–2.2.140

Walker, V.L., DeSpain, S.N., Thompson, J.R., and Hughes, C. (2014). Assessment and Planning in K–12 Schools: A Social-Ecological Approach. Inclusion, 2(2): 125–139. doi:10.1352/2326–6988–2.2.125