OTS 06: BOT-2 v. M-FUN; A Comparison of Two Commonly Used School-Based OT Assessment Tools

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Welcome to the show notes for Episode 6 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.

In this episode, we look at two commonly used school-based Occupational therapy assessment tools. Both the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, or BOT-2, and the Miller Function & Participation Scales (M-FUN) are standardized testing tools that occupational therapists use to assess fine motor and visual-motor skills in children. While they are similar in what they assess, they are very different in how they get their results.

Today's Objectives:

1. What skills do both the BOT-2 and MFUN assess in a child’s educational capabilities?

2. What are the pros and cons of each assessment tool?

3. How do you decide which assessment tool is best suited for any given school-based OT assessment?

Links to Show References:

Learn how to earn professional development units for listening to this podcast here!

Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Ed.

This is a link to Pearson Clinical where you can purchase the BOT-2 to use at your school or clinic. The OT Schoolhouse has no affiliation with Pearson Clinical or the BOT-2 tool.

Miller Function & Participation Scales - This is a link to Pearson Clinical where you can purchase the M-FUN to use at your school or clinic. The OT Schoolhouse has no affiliation with Pearson Clinical or the M-FUN evaluation tool.

In this episode, we mentioned three other evaluations. You can click the links to find out more about them.

1. WRAVMA

2. Beery VMI

3. Peabody

Freebies!

Be sure to subscribe to the OT Schoolhouse email list & get access to our free downloads of Gray-Space paper and the Occupational Profile for school-based OTs.

Have any questions or comments about the podcast? Email Jayson at Jayson@otschoolhouse.com

Well,

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Episode Transcript

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Amazing Narrator   

Hello and welcome to the OT schoolhouse podcast. Your source for the latest school based occupational therapy tips, interviews and research now to get the conversation started, here are your hosts, Jayson and Abby. Class is officially in session. 

Jayson Davies   

Hey there. Welcome back to the OT school house podcast. Today's episode is now number six. We've been doing this for like two, over two months now. Abby, this is awesome. We're already on episode number six. 

Abby Parana   

I know it's suddenly like hot outside. 

Jayson Davies   

It's actually a little overcast over here, but it is warming up, that is for sure. So how are you doing today?   

Abby Parana   

I'm good. I'm good. I'm ready to talk about some ot assessments on the menu today. 

Jayson Davies   

Exactly. So with that today, yeah, we're talking about the bot, the one that I'm going to just butcher right now and say the next ot test, of motor proficiency, Second Edition. 

Abby Parana   

How many times I mean, I've I every time I go to sit in an IEP meeting to say to a parent, and the test that I conducted was the Bruni, like, I have to practice it in my head before it actually. 

Jayson Davies   

In IEPs? 

Abby Parana   

yeah, yeah. But nobody knows what that is. 

Jayson Davies   

Well, I tell them, I say, the reason I'm calling it the bot too is because I don't know how to pronounce it. 

Abby Parana   

Well, I always try to pronounce it and I always fail at it.  

Jayson Davies   

All right. All right. Well, good. A for effort. A for effort. All right. So today we are going to talk a little bit about the bot two, and then we're also going to compare and contrast the bot, to which I believe most of you would all agree that is, it is a very commonly used assessment in school based, school based therapy. We, a lot of us, use it. The other one, I don't think it's quite as commonly used, but we, at least I, use it pretty regularly. It's called the Miller function and participation school scales, also known as, for short, the M fun, M, F, U, n. So it's called the M fun for a reason, because it's fun.  

Abby Parana   

Well, it is fun, and we put the fun in function as OTs, yes, yes. Also, I'm a recent convert to them fun. I hadn't used it in the past until I met you, Jayson, and then I recently started to use it, particularly with the younger kids. It's a really good tool. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and we'll get into, we'll get into in this podcast, what we like about each one, but we're also going to be objective and tell you about what tasks each test looks at what different skills they look at how they relate to education and, well, yeah, eventually we'll kind of give you, you know, you'll kind of hear the a little bit of bias come out as to which one we like, but there are also reasons that we do like and use the bot. So we'll get into that before we jump into that. We're going to go over today. We're going to do something a little bit different from the other five episodes. We're going to give you the objectives for today's episode, and the objectives, I'm just going to read them here for you. They are for all of you listeners to have an understanding of what skills both the bot to and the M fun assess in a child's educational capabilities. Number two, what the pros and cons are of each assessment tool. And three, how to decide which assessment tool is best suited for any given school based ot assessment so by the end of the episode, we hope you will feel that you have met those three expectations that we're trying to trying to meet for you. If you don't, if you don't feel that we did that, please shoot us an angry email. We will do our best to. 

Abby Parana   

Maybe not an maybe not an angry email like a constructive criticism email, constructive criticism. That would be perfect. I'm all about constructive criticism. But also, you know, I think too it's important. These aren't the only two two assessments. These are the two we're going over today. We're not really promoting them or not promoting them. We're just kind of reviewing them. 

Jayson Davies   

Correct and to follow up what I just said. If you do like what we go over today, please, and you feel that we do meet our objectives, please give us a shout out to one of your friends, colleagues, let them know about this podcast. So with that, you know what, I think we are going to jump right in. We are going to start off with the bot. First, it's a little more well known, and we're going to give you our take on it and let you know a little bit more about it. So first, we want to kind of go over what the bot is, what what skills each task looks at, and the different sub tests that are within the bot too. So, Abby, how about you? Go ahead and go over those for a little bit. 

Abby Parana   

Oh sure. So the brunette saskaretsky testimony was really good, I might add. Thank you. I nailed it. Got it is a. Ministered amongst multiple subtests, and there are goal directed activities that look at a wide range of motor skills. And it looks at it for individuals ages four through 21 there are different subtests, and you can use each individual subtest to get a scaled score. And then it also looks at composite scores that give you a standard score. And so I really like the bot, too. I use it frequently because I'm familiar with it and I can administer it pretty easily. Like I said, I'm a recent convert to the M fun, so I tend to go with tests, standardized tests that allow me easy use. So if I'm familiar with it, I know I'm more likely to get an accurate score because I've administered it so many times. So when you're looking at which test to pick, that might be something you want to look at, all 

Jayson Davies   

right, so the final order precision tool or task is the first sub test. It belongs within the broader fine manual control sub test. What are some of the tasks in the fine fine motor precision test?  

Abby Parana   

Right. So the fine motor precision test looks at your precise movement of those small muscles in your hands and control of those finger and hand movement. So it requires you to do things such as color in small shapes, fold paper on the line with accuracy, cut out a circle within a specific boundary. Looks at tracing through a path or a maze and connecting four dots. It's measuring the accuracy of your movements.  

Jayson Davies   

Mostly it also, I take it also as one. It's measuring a two step activity, or at least I get a general sense of that, because that's true asking them to connect the dots and not lift out their pencil. And it also does look at how they're able to plan their forearm movement in order to see where the dots are without taking their pencil off the paper. 

Abby Parana   

Right? And I think too, with the small shapes, you can get a good observation of that distal control of their fingers, you know, if they're using whole hand movement, or if they're using big wrist movement, that's going to really come out when they're coloring in those shapes, that also comes out with the maze, if they're a kid, oh, we've talked about this before. These are just observations. They they're not directly measured in the score that you get for the kid, but these are areas that you can observe through each task and just kind of make a little note for your narrative parts of your report. So for instance, like, I think we talked about this before, when we're observing a kid do the mazes, how that kid, I've had students where they're moving their whole body while they're doing the maze. So instead of just moving their hand, they're moving their whole body around the maze. And you can see them where they don't want to cross their midline, they're almost using their whole body as a unit. And you can see that, or if they're trying to turn the booklet and move it and manipulate it, because you can only turn it, what 45 degrees? Degrees, yep. So you can gain a good understanding of those areas, and those are just little observations you can make while they're doing it, and that can impact their function in the classroom. So those are they're not directly measured by the test, but that is measured or an area that you can observe while they're doing each of the tasks. 

Jayson Davies   

So that's the fine motor precision, fine motor integration. This one is a lot like some other tests, such as the VMI, the visual motor integration buries VMI, as well as the wide range of visual motor abilities the radma, which looks at the ability to copy shapes. The one thing that I do like about the bot versus some of those other tests is that the scoring criteria is more specific on the bot, for instance, copying a circle. You look at it, does it have a basic shape of a circle? Does it have closures, or are the lines touching, or do they cross at the end or at the beginning and the end of the circle? Is it more like an oval? Or are the edges, quote, unquote edges for a circle? Is it pretty regular, cross and height wise? And then you also look at the overall size, which is very important. Recently, actually, there was a question on Facebook recently as to whether or not you would score the circle or any shape on the fine motor integration test. If the shape went outside of the little box that they gave you to write in, I've always scored it that yes, if they even if they go outside the box, you still score it as though it's in the box. I've had that some kids, when they're drawing the star, they'll get to the edge of the box, and then instead of continuing on, they'll kind of draw a line up, or they'll move it because of the box. And so, right? You get a lot of information from looking at that. But as far as scoring goes, I've always scored it even if they go outside of the box. 

Abby Parana   

Right? And then just making a note of it. I think it's just important you just make a note, you know, that child went outside the box or, or maybe the position of. The shape was off, because that could denote, like, a bit of a planning issue, or just not attending to things so but no specific difficulty on those sub tests, I think directly indicates an issue. You have to look at it, because that's a snapshot of what they're doing. So you have to pair that observation, yeah, and it just might be something that you know. And then on classroom observations and in work samples and talking to the teacher, you might want to look for other signs that that can be functionally impacting them.  

Jayson Davies   

Correct. And for those of you who aren't as familiar with the bot, the sub test number two, the fine motor integration that we're talking about. It looks at a child's ability to copy a circle, a square, overlapping circles that kids often confuse for the number eight, a wavy line that looks like a sideways s, a triangle, a diamond, a star, and overlapping pencils, which is kind of a common shape for some reason among tests. I don't know why. 

Abby Parana   

It really is. It's on what the VMI? Yep, I don't think there's one on the ravma. 

Jayson Davies   

No, not on the ravma. No. So that is the fine motor integration portion of the test. The next most commonly used sub test, a lot of OTs, I know don't use all the sub tests on the bot. It does get into more of those gross motor skills that PT might look at later in the test. But the next one that most of us do use is the manual dexterity score, right, right? The manual dexterity, I think most people use that one. I commonly see that on incoming students with ot assessments, and I use it probably about 85 to 90% of the time as well, unless, for some reason, I absolutely don't think there is a fine motor specific fine motor concern. But within the the manual dexterity scores, you have five tasks. One is basically as quick as the child can. They put a dot into these small circles, and there's like 100 circles on the page. Most kids get to like 15 or so.  

Abby Parana   

Because you don't count them all. 

Jayson Davies   

I did not but, but I think there's about 100 I'm just gonna go with 100 I think it's a safe assumption, maybe 98 but the next test after that is transferring pennies. The kid has to pick up a penny with one hand and flip it over, transfer it to the other hand and then put it in a box. The next one is placing pegs into a pegboard with one hand. Number four is sorting cards. There's some cards that have blue circles and other cards that have red squares, and you have to put them in the respective pile with one hand. And the last one is stringing blocks. And of course, that is a two handed task.  

Abby Parana   

Oh, that's not one that would be so hard. Okay. 

Jayson Davies   

So for each of these tasks, you get 15 seconds to have the child perform these tasks, and you are supposed to give them a little direction and practice before you actually test them. And then on all of them, except for the making dots and circles, you actually assess the test twice to try and get their best score. Yep. So what do you like and not like about these few tests Abby? 

Abby Parana   

I think some things to look out for. One the on the manual dexterity I have a lot of little experimenters when we're doing the manual dexterity test, so they like to try and test the best way to do things, and they'll experiment with how they're gonna do it, even though I've directed them and they've done the practice round, okay, it seems like when I time them, they think they're gonna outsmart me with some sort of random thing, which inevitably makes them slower, so especially on the stringing blocks, yes, so I often preface my directions, Yeah, the blocks. They all want to line them up and then see if they can get that string through, like six at once, which is never something that is kind of, it never works. And so I will preface with, I'm going to show you the fastest way to get this done. 

Jayson Davies   

 That's a good. 

Abby Parana   

Yeah. So I'll just kind of to save myself time and headache of having to, you know, constantly redirect or restart the assessment or do something like that, because the more they practice, the faster they're going to be. So then that impacts the reliability of the score or the validity of the score. I will preface it with, I'm going to show you the fastest, easiest, best way to get this done. And if you don't do it this way, I can't count it, and we will have to start over. I'm just pretty direct with that to try and get them to understand that concept. I think the other area that you always have to look for is, I have kids that just, even though I've shown them and on the practice section with those circles, those darn circles, they just don't want to put, like, a little poke in the circle. They want to color a little dot, and that just makes it slows them down. Slows them down, yeah? Or the opposite, where they just want to go through and be like, super fast.  

Jayson Davies   

Correct, and, you know, I wouldn't mind these that, yeah, because you also can't put two dots in one circle. They put two dots around. Circle. It doesn't count, but that's one of the areas with this testing that I kind of have a little discrepancy with. Is one because of the timing. The timing makes kids typically either, either they get super anxious, they don't understand the timing, or they just kind of shut down. And then what I do like about it is that you do get to see a lot in your clinical observations while watching this test that isn't actually scored, such as that crossing midline. It's not it's not actually scored on the test whether or not they can cross midline, but you can watch a kid. And on the most a lot of these tests, transferring pennies, you don't actually cross midline, but they do have to cross from one hand to the other hand. But on the sorting cards one and the and the pegboard, they do have to cross midline. And you can see stuff like that. 

Abby Parana   

Oh yeah. And then, and then you can warrant further observation of functional skills. So whatever it is that they're having trouble with, like you see those kids that they don't want to transfer the penny between their hands. Instead, they hold the penny with both hands and then drop it into the container. And they do that, they bring it to their other hand, and then they put both and drop it in. And it's those little things that you observe for that are could be impacting them functionally. So you you know, and like I said, every assessment is a snapshot, so you don't those are just little observations that might warrant further investigation. 

Jayson Davies   

Correct, so moving on past the manual dexterity, we get to sub test number four, which is bilateral coordination. Now this is one that I know not every ot assesses every student with I do typically see sub test number one, two and three on just about every single occupational therapy evaluation that comes across my deck desk as a transfer in the rest of them I don't always see, but I do use some of them, and I know other OTs do occasionally use some of them, depending on what their observations are of the child. So sub test number four is bilateral coordination, and this includes some tasks such as seeing if a student can do jumping jacks, seeing if they can touch their nose with their index fingers, eyes closed, this is basically, you know, the typical drunk driving test. Can you reach out with your fingers and bring your finger to your nose. You know you only have to do it four times, but you know the officer may want a few more than four times, but and then right the other ones are some sort of jumping in place, or the next two are jumping in place. While you jump in place, you're moving your hands and your feet. Sometimes you're moving your right hand with your right foot, and other times you're moving your right hand in the opposite direction of your right foot and left and vice versa. So it's got some bilateral coordination, definitely, as the test name suggests, it also has a lot of planning. 

Abby Parana   

Yeah. And I think you have to really look at, when you're looking at the bilateral coordination sub test, you really have to have an understanding. So if that child receives speech you really need to know what that speech therapy assessment says, because if they're receptively not understanding directions, it may not be a coordination issue or a planning issue. It may be that they just really don't understand what you're doing exactly all the time. And so given, and I think, I mean, that's just something to consider. They may need more practice or whatnot, and, and at times, you know, I'll do these, like this sub test only if I'm hearing that they're having problems with certain tasks. Yeah, functional tasks, so, or I've observed them have problems with certain functional tasks, like being out at recess or in gym class or something like that. But if they're not having those problems, then I might not do this. It depends on what the areas of need are.  

Jayson Davies   

Definitely, the last one that I do typically see on on an occupational therapy evaluation is the upper limb coordination, which most people will know, this is the ball test. You have a tennis ball, and you're doing many different items with the tennis ball. You're having the child drop the tennis ball and catch it with one hand, with both hands, with their non dominant hand. You're having them throw and catch the ball. And you're even having them I think the hardest one is the dribbling the ball that one's always tricky for kids. Oh, gosh, yeah, either with one, either with their dominant hand, or when you have to switch hands, it even gets more tricky. So that's kind of what the upper limb coordination looks at. 

Abby Parana   

Right, and I think if they're having trouble with tracking, or they have behaviors related to difficulties with tracking in the classroom, whether they're having the teacher reports that they're skipping words when they're reading or they're having trouble with that skill, I will look at this subtest, or I'll do activities related to tracking and then determine whether or not to do this subtest, because I think sometimes if you're looking too heavily at standardized scores, you lose the function. Definitely, you know you're right. So and a kid can look really bad on a standardized test score, but functionally they're very high. So yeah, just keeping that in mind. 

Jayson Davies   

I also use this sub test, especially the throwing of the ball, which is the final, final task of this test at a red target, at a small target, is how a student is able to learn, because especially when you're working with the younger kids, they haven't learned how to throw a ball, and you really get to see, are they able to learn from you teaching them such a gross motor activity? And I can only imagine how difficult it would be for a kid to learn something more complex in the classroom if they're having a difficulty just learning how to position their body and throw a baseball or and so again, it's not something that's actually scored within this test, but it is definitely some clinical observations that you're able to notate and and give your results on in your report.  

Abby Parana   

And I think just keep in mind, when you're doing the bot, what is the purpose of your assessment. It's a school based assessment, so you're not going you may need to detect all of these difficulties if it's impacting them in the classroom, but you may also not need to detect them correct in a way you know you want to assess in we're only obligated to assess in all areas of suspected need. So if a kid's accessing their environment and they're able to do functional tasks kind of related to these things, even if their standardized test score is in the well below average range, you I mean, if it's in the well below average it probably is impacting them functionally, but if it's in the below average range, it may or may not impact them functionally. 

Jayson Davies   

Correct. So the other tests that are not commonly used by OTs is the sub test that is identified as balance. Number six is running speed and agility, and number eight is strength. I rarely ever you see those on an occupational therapy evaluation. I have seen an OT and a PT collaborate to do all the tests together and do a multi disciplinary type of evaluation, but not too commonly do. I see OTs doing those on the back of the bot. It's kind of cool. They have a short form. I think I've only used it once, but it does kind of break it down. And you only have there's about 15 components that you do, and it does include a few of those gross motor ones. I don't necessarily recommend it. You get a much better snapshot of a student when you do the full form. But just do not the entire bot. You do the fine motor and visual motor ones. 

Abby Parana   

And I think it's really important to note here too. When you talked about multi disciplinary assessments, I love multi disciplinary assessments. I think, yeah, a podcast. Um, no, anyway, so I just like them, because I think it gives you a much better functional picture of a student versus just an OT assessment for that reason. So I like the bot. 

Jayson Davies   

All right. So that took slightly longer than we expected. So we are going to jump in now to the fine the, sorry, not the fine motor, the M fun, the Miller function and participation scales, also known as the M fun. So one thing that Abby touched upon with the bot is that it does have a wide range. You can test a student from four years old all the way up to 21 which is quite nice, because you know, if we're testing a student officially for the triennial every three years. You can rest assure that if you tested on three years ago with the bot, you're going to be able to test them again three years later with the bot, and compare and contrast scores with the M fun, the scores, or, sorry, the ages that you can use the M fun for is from 2.6 so two and a half years old, which, you know, not many school based therapists are working with kids that young. Usually, you know, we have some preschoolers that might be, what, four, three and a half, four, but it only goes up to seven years, 11 months, which is pretty young. You know, if you would test, if you test a kindergartner by the time they're in third grade, there's no, there's no given that you'll be able to use this assessment again. You might have to use the bot once they turn eight, or some other assessment tool. So that's kind of one thing that's not as great about the M fun. However, there are a lot of great things about it, so let's go over it. 

Abby Parana   

Yay. I'm a recent I'm a recent convert to the M fund. So I'm gonna let Jayson kind of school me up on it all right, because I am not as used to using the M fun. But when I have used it with certain age populations, particularly kindergarten, or those transitioning into kindergarten and preschool, I think it's a really good tool. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah so I really enjoyed it's my first go to test for any younger child that I think can actually get through it, it is a little bit longer of a test. It does take a little bit more attention, but it's fun, and so it tends to even kids that are a little bit would have a little bit more trouble getting through the bot. I think they enjoy the end fund, so it helps them get through it a little bit better. So the. M fun has four components, really. The first component is the visual motor. The second component is the fine motor sub test. Then you have the gross motor sub test, which I don't use. However, every time I look at it, I think with like the next kid, I should do the gross motor part of it, because a lot of it is kind of things that you would see on the bot upper limb coordination, like the using of a ball, or the bilateral coordination, the jumping and balance part of it. So I will use it one time, because it actually it does seem pretty good. So I also, again, have seen OTs and PTs collaborate to do the gross motor test.  

Abby Parana   

How would you say? Oh, sorry, go. Sorry. I didn't mean to interject, but I think with the how do you think it compares? Have you used the Peabody developmental scales? Like, what do you think? Because the Peabody, well, I mean, I guess the Peabody goes up to.  

Jayson Davies   

What it goes up to six, yeah. And so I like this one more, because it's just more organized the Peabody, you know, you can have to jump around a little bit. It's, it gives you a different type of score to get a ceiling and a basal exactly, gives you the basal level and the ceiling. This one is more straightforward. It goes through. So I prefer this one for the kids that are a little bit older. Again, we don't have preschools, so I might write, I might try that one more with a preschooler, but by time they get to kindergarten, I'm pretty much said on the M fun versus, unless they can't do the M fun. 

Abby Parana   

On the M fun looks a lot at like, school based tasks, specifically where the people it's more developmentally based. 

Jayson Davies   

Yes, definitely. And the last part of the the M fun is the checklist. It has a home checklist, a classroom checklist, and a test observations checklist. Again, don't use these as often. I find that my own narrative is is better than going through the checklist and providing providing answers to those and then saying whether or not the child is average or below average according to the checklist. I would rather just give more feedback via a narrative in my report, and we were just looking up some the validity and reliability of those checklists a minute ago, before we started the podcast, and they actually the subjective portions of the assessments, both the bot and the M fun, such as checklist and observations, are actually less valid, valid and less reliable than the rest of the the test overall. So in my opinion, I think Abby will agree with me, is just the narrative. Being able to add a little bit extra to your report about what you observed during the test or in the classroom gives more than the observation the formal observations from the test.  

Abby Parana   

Yeah. And I think so long as you can defend your observations and keep them extremely objective, like just deliver the information. Don't elaborate too much subjectively on what you think it means in your report, just deliver the information. This is what you observed. Sort of remove your opinion out of it, and save that for your recommendations and your summary, but also just noting that your opinion is highly subjective. So if you are doing your narrative and you choose not to use, you know, checklists and that sort of thing, because they're maybe you don't find them as reliable, or because you feel like your narrative is more relatable, just remember to keep it objective in your report, and keep it very specific to what you looked at functionally with the child. And then just be prepared to defend your observations. Definitely. You don't necessarily need a score for everything. 

Jayson Davies   

Exactly. So I'm going to run through a few of these tasks that are on the M fun. It starts off in the visual motor task with a it's called the amazing mazes game. And it's literally, it's a maze with one of them is a dog is trying to find her puppy. Can you help the dog find her puppy? And the kid has to go through a short maze. There's a total of three mazes. Each one gets a little more tricky. And so you kind of get that, where does the child fall? Do they fall on a maze? Do they fail on a maze that is kind of designed for four year olds? Do they fail on a maze that's kind of designed for five year olds? Or are they able to get through all of them? So that's a cool thing. The next one's a race car game in which you get to look at a little bit of those that motor control and the ability to cross midline, because you're kind of going in a spiral. The kid has to, has to trace a quote, unquote Road, as they call it, which is a thick gray line, to get all the way to the end. So it looks at some bilateral coordination skills and motor accuracy. There's some visual processing skills where you have to find the hidden objects. There's the find the forks game, as well as the find the puppies game. There's also one where you get to draw you draw a kid. Actually, the assessor draws a kid, and then the student tries to copy your your drawing and or draw their own person as well as they can. Yeah. Another great thing that I find about the M fun, other than the bot, is that it actually specifically looks at handwriting. You start with tracing handwriting, then you move to copying some letters, then you moved on to writing some letters from dictation. It's only three so it's not too difficult for the kids. You can pretty quickly determine if a kid can write letters from dictation or if they can't. 

Abby Parana   

Yes. I love that part of it, actually.  

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. And the last two writing activities are writing copying simple words, three letter words, and then the most tricky one is copying about a six sentence word or six word sentence or so. Yeah, it might be a few more words, but it's not too diff. It's not too long of a sentence, but you can definitely determine between you can see a big difference between the ones that can do it, and the ones that cannot do it. 

Abby Parana   

And I'd say even on the sentence copying portion it, it's very age appropriate in how they have it set up. You can tell whether or not they understand that double lined paper because of how that task is set up. Yes, you know, you can see like, oh, have they learned to use that dotted line, and it's very age appropriate in the sense that you would expect, you know, a six or seven year old to have been taught that. And if they're not able to do that test, you can tell pretty quickly. I like that part. 

Jayson Davies   

I agree with you. The second portion, or at least the fine motor portion, of the test, is similar to the manual dexterity of the bot a little bit, except more functional in my opinion. You know, there's there's cutting out a fish instead of cutting out a circle. There is playing with clay and rolling clay into a snake and flattening it into a cookie. There is an origami game in which you see if a child can imitate your folds. You fold a dog, and then the child folds a dog. So you can see whether or not they can they can imitate. They can use those fine motor skills in order to fold. One particular question is, does the student use two hands to fold? Or do they only use one hand? Or do they kind of use that second hand to fold? So that's kind of one of those questions that you get a lot from. There's a penny bank game, which gives you the opportunity to see a lot. You get to see crossing midline. Do they cross midline to pick up pennies? It also looks at in hand manipulation skills. You put five pennies into the child's hand and see if they can get them out to put them into the Peggy bank one at a time. Can they do it with one hand, or do they need to use their second hand to to facilitate that, that movement of those small items. The last test is the snack time test, which, I mean, I were just talking about this, when we kind of see it a little bit out of place, because it's not necessarily looking at just fine motor skills, but it's also kind of cool, because it gives you the opportunity to actually objectively score functional social communication, which, yeah, that's not something that you get on many tests. So for right since you one of the descriptions is, does the student consistently demonstrate appropriate core cooperation and attention? Which is kind of cool, because you actually get that social skill aspect of the test. I know Abby had something to say about this.  

Abby Parana   

Yeah, and I think just for me, I think it takes a little bit of practice and comfort level with the therapist using it. You might have to practice it a couple of times and definitely be prepared. The other thing I just wanted to touch on, even with the fine motor test, in a little bit with the M fun, unlike the bot is it's almost the activities are super engaging for kids. I noticed there's always the goal direction is fun. Like, instead of just folding paper to fold paper, where a child might not put forth the effort because they don't really know what care about it or know what they're folding, there's no goal at the end of folding papers, just to fold the paper, just to fold it. 

Jayson Davies   

It sometimes looks like an alligator if it's full. 

Abby Parana   

Yeah, exactly. And so I think with the M fun folding a doggy and putting the ears and doing that is more engaging and it and the child's more likely to put forth an adequate effort that will give you a truer picture. And so anyway, back to snack time. What do you have to say about snack time? Sorry, I just was thinking about that. I was like, oh. 

Jayson Davies   

No, that's a good I like it. Snack time. It's it's a good one. You do see, can a poor, can a poor, can a child pour water from one cup to another cup? Can they dump their crackers onto a napkin without, you know, making the the crackers go everywhere. So there are, again, some of those functional skills that a class that a child would do in a classroom. So it's kind of nice. The thing that I really like, absolutely love about the M fun versus the bot and just about any other assessment tool I can think of is that they have this component called the neurological foundations profile. And, yeah, bear with me. That's kind of hard to explain, but based upon the scores on your test, if a child scores. On a Likert scale. Say, you know, it's a zero if the child didn't do it, do it well at all, and it's a three if they did do well, if they get a zero or one, you circle something on this foundations profile, and based upon where you're circling, it tells you the exact foundational skills that you may want to work on with the child. So for instance, some of the foundational skills that you could potentially find that the student has difficulties with is hand strength, pincer grasp, in hand manipulation, mature grasp, motor accuracy, motor planning, crossing midline and bilateral coordination. So those are all specific tasks that the M fund can weed out as far as what you may want to work on going forward. So that's really cool, in my opinion. 

Abby Parana   

And then that way you're not developing treatment activities that are working on, you know, we were talking about this pincer grasp or something like that, when really what you should be working on, as, you know, other areas like visual processing, areas such as visual discrimination or scan like you're not. It's very specific. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. So two examples would be the cutting in the bot versus the cutting of a fish and the M fund, the bot scores the cutting as either a 0123456, or seven points, right? Versus the Miller actually looks at is the child holding the scissors correctly? Are they using the second hand when they to turn the object while cutting? Do they cut within a given space, just like the bot does? But you notice that there's more criteria to fill in and to observe and to take data on. So that does make the M fun. Take a little bit longer to actually administer and to score. But in my opinion, and it's totally worth it, because you do get so much more information that you can relay to other occupational therapists, to the parent, to the teacher, to the the certified ot occupational therapy assistant that you can get that information to. So in my opinion, it's Yeah, 

Abby Parana   

Well, and it helps with developing baselines and goals. So if you're, you know, if the kid is not holding their scissors correctly, that could potentially be a goal. If the child is, you know, not cutting doesn't understand cutting on the line around a boundary, that could be a goal, but they're holding their scissors correctly, you wouldn't work on scissor grasp. You would work on that and, and it gives you a direct baseline so that, oh, I have a shape, I have something that they weren't able to do. And, and the fish is much more compared to the bot, particularly for those younger kids. I think that fish is more engaging, but also just the whole cutting on the boundary around the shape where the circle some kids just it's too difficult for the young ones. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. Well, plus the the hardest part of the fish is actually, when you get to the tail, you have to cut in and then cut out, which everyone knows that's, that's like cutting a complex shape, and that's more tricky, yep. So you do get to see a little bit more than just cutting out a simple circle. It's a little bit harder of an item to cut out, but Right? It's more engaging, and kids are more likely to actually try and cut it out, right? So I think our biggest concern with the infine is just that it only goes up to seven years, 11 months, that you can test a student with. Unfortunately, it's not normed for older than that like any other test. Yes, you could technically use it with an older student or an older child that is above that age, but make sure you're going to put into your notes. This test was used with a student outside of the designated age range, and that standardized scores do not cannot be really drawn from this testing, from your test, because it's not standardized for that age. However, you can get a lot of useful information from using the test with older kids, as far as observation wise. 

Abby Parana   

Yeah, and do you think, I mean, I'm almost wondering if maybe part of the reason it goes not quite as high up in age as kids are kind of expected to have those skills by that certain age, I think so, by eight years. So it probably I mean all the if I'm thinking of the sub tests and all the things that they're asked to do developmentally, children should be able to do those skills by that age. 

Jayson Davies   

If they can do it at eight, then they can do it at 11, type of, right? Yeah, right. I think you're right on that. It should have been mastered it, but it would be nice if it went up higher. Who knows, maybe they'll change it up a little bit and create a more middle school type one later down the road. That'd be cool. But anyways, the last objective that we wanted to get to is, you know, we wanted to share with you, kind of, and we've talked about a little bit already, but we wanted to share with you how we decide which one we want to use. And so we have a list of a few things here we'll go over. And the first one is age. Of course, we just got done telling you about how the M fund can only go up to 711 so if it's over, then seven if the child is older than seven years, 11 months, we're more likely. To use the bot?  

Abby Parana   

Yeah, absolutely. Because if it's normed for a specific age group, you want to try and stay within what it's designed for. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, if you can, it's best. The second criteria that we kind of had here for picking a test would be, what are the concerns or the reason for the referral for the student? And again, this kind of hints back toward the end Fund is a lot of our referrals are for handwriting. And there is a small handwriting section in the M fun. So if they're within that age range, I'm more likely to go toward that one.  

Abby Parana   

Yeah. So yeah. And I think with handwriting too, if it's, you know, they're copying letters or something like that, or we'll get referrals for I'm thinking of why I would use the bot if I get a referral from a school psychologist that is saying, oh, their mortar motor coordination was low on the BMI or their but their perception was high, and then their Visual motor integration was low on those scores, I would likely use the bot to get more information and try and tease out okay if they're accurately matching shapes, and able to perceive the shape and process it and verbally tell you what it is, then it may be a coordination issue. So I would use the bot.  

Jayson Davies   

Another one that we criteria that we had was what test was used with the student previously. So if you use the bot previously, you may want to use the bot again, because you can compare and contrast scores. Same thing if a kid used the Miller fund, the M fund back when they're in preschool, maybe before you had the student. And now there's seven years, eight months. You can still use the Miller functional assessment for one more time before you got to change it up because of their age. Another one that we had on here was time allotment. How much time do you have to complete this test the bot, I can tell you, it is definitely a lot less time, not a lot less, but it is significantly less time to both administer and to score, especially if you only do the first two or three sub tests. 

Abby Parana   

Right? And I think too, when you're looking at time allotment, the tests that you're comfortable with will go faster than the test you're not comfortable with. So if you've for me, I tend to use the bot a lot more than the M fun, just because I'm really used to it, and I know the test very well, or at least the first four sub tests I know pretty well. I'm sorry, four, first four, yeah, yeah. So I know them pretty well, and I'm used to giving them so I can, essentially, you know, administer them and be fairly confident that my scores are going to be very reliable, so I tend to opt with that, and you can deliver it faster when you're familiar with it. 

Jayson Davies   

Definitely, all right. Well, that's what we wanted to wrap up for you today, was those three objectives. So now you know a little bit about the M fun and the bot. You know what they assess? You know what kind of some of the pros and the cons are of using the bottom and fun. And you kind of have heard a little bit about how we decide which test to use with the time thing. I don't want to say, you know, that it's something that we pick because we're in a rush to get assessments done. No, no, no. Not that. It's just, you know, you some kids can't go for too long as well, and so you kind of have to break it up. And you can break both tests up very easily, but the bot can be broken up a little more quickly.  

Abby Parana   

Right, And I think too, when you're looking at time allotment, that's that whole you need to know the kid. So if you're noticing attention and executive functioning difficulties, you do need to pay attention to the amount of time you're pulling them for testing, because it will impact the standardized scores on both of these assessments. They have to have good self regulation in order to do things such as cut on the line and color in shapes and take their time with those things, or else their precision is going to look very poor when it's really probably not.  

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, definitely. All right. Well, that's going to wrap up episode number six. As always, you can refer to our show notes for anything that we talked about. We'll have links to both a few things about the bond as well as the M fun at OT or OT schoolhouse.com forward slash episode six, all one word, Episode The number six. If you enjoyed this episode, we hope you will subscribe to both the podcast and our website@otschoolhouse.com we keep on growing. You guys keep helping us out by sharing us on Facebook, on Twitter everywhere. So we appreciate that, and we're just gonna continue to bring you more content. So any last words Abby? 

Abby Parana   

Nothing. I'm just having a really good time making these podcasts. I think it's really fun, and I enjoy sharing information with other OTs. So like Jayson said, If you like what you're hearing, please share us so that we can get you know the word out and continue to bring you more information. Or if you have any constructive criticisms, not angry criticism, please go ahead and shoot us an email, a direct message us. Follow us on Instagram and kind of share your input. If there's podcasts or things that you want to hear more information on, share that with us as well, where we look to bring you guys information that you would enjoy hearing or that would better your practice, just like this is bettering ours.  

Jayson Davies   

Yep, definitely. So we look forward to many more podcasts in the future. We have some good ones already lined up, coming up here soon, and we're trying to figure out how we're going to do podcasts over the summer, so stay tuned a little bit for that, and we'll let you know. All right. So have a good rest of your day, everyone, and enjoy the end of the school year coming up. 

Abby Parana   

That's great. Thanks for stopping by.  

Jayson Davies   

Bye, bye.  

Amazing Narrator   

Thank you for listening to the OT school house podcast for more ways to help you and your students succeed right now, head on over to otschoolhouse.com Until next time class is dismissed

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OTS 06_ BOT-2 v. M-FUN; A Comparison of Two Commonly Used School-Based OT Assessment Tools

Download M-FUN; A COMPARISON OF TWO COMMONLY USED SCHOOL-BASED OT ASSESSMENT TOOLS • 141KB

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