Webinar Questions

We were told you have to do all the questions in the order on the test and we can’t skip around between domains. Is this true? The instructors from Riverside indicated that experienced evaluators may be able to administer questions out of order within one domain. However, you need to be careful to watch for the basal and ceiling and total the score correctly. You should complete one domain before beginning another. However, if you see the child demonstrating a skill from one domain while you are administering an item for another domain, you can make a note of it so you don’t have to present that item. Just be sure the skill you saw meets the criteria as indicated in the domain book.

We were told we cannot administer items by observation because that requires seeing the child for many hours over several days? The BDI-2 Examiner’s Manual indicates that observation procedures are used to evaluate skills that a child may not display during the evaluation and that are not easily assessed by structured procedures. According to the Examiner’s Manual, a general rule of thumb is to use observation procedures when the examiner has been able to observe the child for an hour a day over two weeks. So if you have spent 10-14 hours with the child over any time period, you should be able to accurately score items you have observed.

Can we do the RBI while we are administering the BDI? The BDI must be administered according to the standardized instructions, including using the standard questions for interview items. After a child has responded to a test item, or after the standard question has been asked, parents often provide additional information about the child’s functioning in routines, or the team might ask additional questions. Any information that the team learns about a child’s functional abilities or routines during the administration of the BDI2 can be recorded in the first section of the IFSP, (the Functional Abilities, Strengths and Needs Assessment section) which serves both as a discussion of routines and needs assessment.

If you record information about routines during the administration of the BDI, make sure that the parent has consented to both Evaluation and Needs Assessment. The team must review the entire Functional Abilities, Strengths and Needs Assessment section of the IFSP with the family and make sure it is complete before proceeding to the development of IFSP outcomes.

There are numerous programs around the state that have implemented this practice as an efficient way to evaluate and assess a child, so you might want to ask some of your peers for more information.

What’s more important: having the right team for the BDI or meeting the 45-day timeline? Having the appropriate team to determine eligibility and meeting the 45-day timeline for IFSP development are both important for ensuring children and families are receiving the services they need. The 45-day timeline is a requirement in federal regulations (34 CFR §303.310). Federal and state requirements do not detail which ECI professionals must make up an evaluation team; however, 40 TAC §108.903(a) states, “…The contractor and the family must determine the most appropriate…participants for the evaluation in order to capture the most accurate picture of the child’s ability to function in their natural environment.” Staff with expertise in the area(s) of concern are more likely to notice subtle differences in the way the child demonstrates skills, which may affect the scoring of test items or lead the team to conclude that the score on the BDI-2 does not accurately reflect the child’s development. In the latter case, if the appropriate LPHA is already present, the team members do not need to schedule another appointment to qualitatively determine if the child is delayed. In those case, having the appropriate team at the initial evaluation can help you meet the 45-day timeline.

If the family chooses to wait for the right team to be available for the BDI, does that count as a family reason for missing the timeline? As stated in the answer above, your program is required to provide an evaluation team that can accurately determine the child’s developmental abilities. If the professionals who can do that are not available to evaluate the child in time to develop the IFSP within the 45-day timeline, it is a program reason, not a family reason.