Contextualized Analysis and the Contextualized Assessment of Pragmatics Checklist

Systematic observation and contextualized analysis is a form of informal assessment that “involve observation across a variety of contexts to obtain descriptions of language functioning” (Westby et al., 2003). According to IDEA (2004), such types of informal assessment must be used in conjunction with standardized assessments. Section. 300.532(b), 300.533 (a) (1) (I, ii, iii); 300.535(a)(1) of IDEA states that, “assessors must use a variety of different tools and strategies to gather relevant functional and developmental information about a child, including information provided by the parent, teacher, and information obtained from classroom-based assessments and observation.”

Owing to the importance of using informal assessment in creating a hologram of a child’s pragmatic language abilities, the Lavi Institute offers a free to use video based Contextualized Assessment of Pragmatics Checklist.