Making Something Out of Everything

Abstract

The authors examine issues related to the ecological assessment of students with mild to moderate disabilities. Neither early attempts to assess internal states nor later efforts to identify person-specific variables linked to disabling conditions have proven useful. Accordingly, there is increased interest in the identification of both individual and environmental factors that correspond to either adaptive or maladaptive transactions in the natural environment—school, home, and community. Aspects of an ecological assessment model and recommendations for its use are discussed.