Visual Motor Assessment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Comparing Performance and Considerations for Assessment

Standardized assessment of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can produce inaccurate results due to behaviors exhibited during assessment. This study developed the Occupational Therapy Observation Tool-Adjustment Support Details for children with autism (OTOT-ASD) to investigate the behaviors demonstrated, and the reasonable supports required, during administration of formal visual motor assessments. The OTOT-ASD was used to record student's behaviors and accommodations necessary to support their assessment when completing the Beery Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration 6th Ed. (Beery VMI) and a new assessment, the Hartley Knows Writing Shapes Assessment Version 3 (HKWSA-V3). This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the HKWSA-V3 in the assessment of 15 children with ASD. Preliminary findings were promising, although further investigation with a larger sample is required. The OTOT-ASD enabled high incidences of behaviors disruptive to testing and supportive accommodations to be captured during assessment. As a new tool, the OTOT-ASD may improve the clinical utility of formal visual motor assessments via enabling the administering occupational therapist to accurately make and record reasonable adjustments to support the child's true performance capacity. Further development of the OTOT-ASD is recommended to evaluate the generalizability of the tool for use with children with ASD. This research has the following implications for pediatric occupational therapy practice:The HKWSA-V3 is an internally reliable tool that demonstrates adequate criterion validity when assessing children with ASD.Significant reasonable accommodations are required to support test administration among children with ASD.The OTOT-ASD may be a clinically useful companion tool for assessment of children with ASD.