Preliminary Investigation of the Relationship of Ivymount Social Cognition Instructional Package (IvySCIP) to Similar Assessment Tools and Impact on Students with High Functioning Autism

Abstract Ivymount Social Cognition Instructional Project (IvySCIP) supports teachers and related service providers to implement data-driven social and emotional learning (SEL) instruction for their kindergarten through 5th grade students with social cognition challenges, especially those with high functioning autism spectrum disorders (HF-ASD). Based on comprehensive assessment of students' SEL strengths and needs, IvySCIP identifies instructional priority areas, generates individualized education plan (IEP) goal recommendations, and enables SEL progress monitoring. In order to begin establishing the psychometric properties of the IvySCIP strengths and needs assessment, we examined correlations between participants' scores on IvySCIP and their scores on similar tools. As predicted, strong correlations emerged between IvySCIP and other tools. We also examined the impact of using IvySCIP over a 20 week period to facilitate SEL in students with HF-ASD. IvySCIP was piloted with 53 instructor/student pairs broken into two groups. The first group received 20 weeks of access to IvySCIP and the latter received 10 weeks of access. While pilot study outcomes suggested that there were no significant differences between the groups, all students made significant SEL progress over the course of the 20 week study as measured by IvySCIP and similar tools. Social validation surveys indicated that instructors perceived IvySCIP to be innovative, valuable, and an effective means of improving SEL instruction for students.