Considerations in Selecting
Developmental Screening and
Assessment Measures
Laurie Ford
Dept. of Educational & Counselling Psychology &
Special Education- UBC
Mary Stewart
Infant Development Program
Early Childhood Education- UBC
Early Childhood Assessment Conference
Vancouver, BC - May 21, 2009
Objectives for the Session
• Review a framework for selecting a screening and /or
assessment tools
• Discuss the important considerations when selecting a
screening or assessment tool
• Discuss common assessment terms
• Discuss types of assessments
• Critical evaluation of screening and assessment tools
commonly used in ECE.
Getting to Know You
In partners:
• Introduce yourself
• Where you are from and what work you do.
• What is one question you want answered from
this workshop.
After 5 minutes:
• Introduce your partner to the group and list your
question.
Evaluation
Who uses developmental screening tools on
a regular basis?
What screening or assessment tools are
used?
Guidelines for screening and
assessment
(Miesels and Provence, 1989)
1. Screening and assessment should be
viewed as services- as part of the
intervention process and not only as a
means of identification and measurement.
Evaluation
Intervention
Screening
Assessment
Diagnostic assessment
Guidelines for screening and
assessment
(Miesels and Provence, 1989)
2. Processes, procedures and instruments
intended for screening and assessment
should only be used for their specific
purpose.
What is assessment?
• Why do we do assessments with children in our
programs?
Assessment Methods
• Observation
– Children
– Children and Adults
• Informal and structured interviews
– with children
– with parents and child care providers
• Rating scales or questionnaires
• Direct Assessment
Screening
Assessment
Diagnostic
Assessment
Screening
Screening is a brief evaluation to
identify which children need further
more in-depth assessment
Screening
Sensitivity: Ability of the test to correctly identify
children with developmental delay
Specificity: Ability of the test to correctly identify
children without developmental delays
Assessment
Assessmnt
Assessment is the process of obtaining
information for the purposes of making
evaluative decisions.
To identify child and family strengths and
need and to propose strategies for
intervention.
Assessment
Norm- referenced
• Focus on comparing a child’s performance to
other children (their relative development)
Criterion-referenced
• Identify what skills a child has and had not yet
developed (compared to themselves)
Diagnostic Assessment
Diagnostic approaches tend to identify
whether a children have significant
symptoms of certain conditions
Standardized
The standard materials
used in each
situation.
The standard method of
presentation of
materials in each
situation
Guidelines for screening and
assessment
(Miesels and Provence, 1989)
3. Multiple sources of information should be
included in screening and assessment
Multiple sources
Screening & Assessment
Tools
Child
Child Care
Parents
Providers
Child in Different
Environments
Child
Family
Child Care setting
Child in the park
community
Guidelines for screening and
assessment
(Miesels and Provence, 1989)
4. Developmental screening should take
place on a recurrent or periodic basis. It is
inappropriate to screen young children
only once during their early years.
Similarly, provisions should be made for
reevaluation or reassessment after
services have been made.
Guidelines for screening and
assessment
(Miesels and Provence, 1989)
5. Developmental screening should be viewed as
only one path to more in-depth assessment.
Failure to qualify for services based on a single
source of screening information should not
become a barrier to further evaluation for
intervention services if other risk factors (e.g.
environment, medical, familial) are present.
Guidelines for screening and
assessment
(Miesels and Provence, 1989)
6. Screening and assessment procedures
should be reliable and valid.
Assessment
• Reliability: how reliably an instrument or rater
measures a variable
• Validity: the degree to which a test measures what it
is intends to measure
Assessment
What population
was this test
“normed” on?
Guidelines for screening and
assessment
(Miesels and Provence, 1989)
7. Family members should be an integral part of
the screening and assessment process.
Information provided by family members is
critically important for determining whether or
not to initiate more in-depth assessment and for
designing appropriate intervention strategies.
Parents should be accorded complete informed
consent at all stages of the screening and
assessment process.
Guidelines for screening and
assessment
(Miesels and Provence, 1989)
8. During screening or assessment of
developmental strengths and problems,
the more relevant and familiar the tasks
and setting are to the child and the child’s
family, the more likely it is that the results
will be valid.
Which “shoe” will child
know?
Guidelines for screening and
assessment
(Miesels and Provence, 1989)
9. All tests, procedures and processes for
screening or assessment must be
culturally sensitive.
Guidelines for screening and
assessment
(Miesels and Provence, 1989)
10. Extensive and comprehensive training
is needed by those who screen and
assess very young children.
Some Common Screening
Tools (ASQ)
Ages & Stages Questionaire
•
• Parkyn Screen
• Nipissing District Developemental Screen
(NDDS)
• Denver-II
• Developmental Indicators of the Activities for
Learning (DIAL-3)
• Early Screening Inventory- Revised (ESI-R)
• Brigance Screening
Ages & Stages Questionnaire
(ASQ)
•
•
•
•
Squires, Potter, & Bricker (1999)
Publisher: Paul H. Brookes
Caregiver Report is the informant
Families and children between the ages of
4 and 60 months
Ages & Stages Questionnaire
(ASQ)
Training Administration & Scoring Requirements:
Questionairres are written at a 6th grade reading level
Each questionairre takes about 15 minutes to complete
Interpretation must be done by professionals or para
professionals
Training materials provided in Users Guide and extra
video is also available
No adaptation for individuals with disabilities
Ages & Stages QuestionnaireSocial Emotional (ASQ-SE)
Can be administered by parents, child care
providers, and preschool teachers. If parents,
staff should train parents
Designed to compliment the ASQ by providing
information on social-emotional functioning for
children 3 months to 66 months
Nipissing District
Developmental Screen
(NDDS)
13 versions (1 month
to 6 years)
•
• Number of items 4 to 22
• Vision, hearing, speech-language, gross motor,
fine motor, cognitive, self-help
• English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese
• Developed in Ontario during the mid 90s
Early Screening InventoryRevised (ESI-R)
• Examines development in three major areas:
– Visual-Motor/Adaptive
– Language and Cognition
– Gross Motor
• Examine in each each area but you also get a
total score
Early Screening InventoryRevised (ESI-R)
• Brief developmental screening instrument that is
individually administered to children ages 3 to 6
years.
• Designed to identify children who may be in need of
special services to perform successfully upon school
entry
• ESI-P: Preschool Version 3 yrs-4 yrs 6 mos
• ESI-K: Kindergarten Version 4 yrs 5mos -5 yrs 6 mos.
Early Screening InventoryRevised (ESI-R)
• Visual-Motor/Adaptive
– Fine Motor
– Eye Hand Coordination
– Short term Memory
• Language & Cognition
–
–
–
–
Language comprehension
Verbal Expression
Reason & Count
Auditory Sequences
• Gross Motor
Common Developmental
Assessment Tools
• Cognitive - Level C
– Bayley Scales of Infant Development- 2nd Edition
– Stanford-Binet Scales of Intelligence - 5th Edition
– Wecshler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence 3rd Edition
– Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children - 2nd
Edition
– Leiter - Revised
? Others you have seen ?
Bayley Scales of Infant
Development - 2nd Edition
• Designed for children from birth to 3 years, 6
months
• Includes a mental and a motor scale
• The mental scale measures cognitive, sensory,
and early language skills but just gives you an
overall score
Common Developmental
Assessment Tools
• Language Tests
– Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - 4th Ed
– Expressive Vocabulary Test
– Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised
• Multiple Domain Tests
– Mullen Scales of Early Learning
– Battelle Developmental Inventory - 2nd Ed
Peabody Picture Vocabulary
Test - 4th Edition
• Used with a wide age range starting at 2 years,
6 months to 90+
• Best thought of as measure of receptive
language.
• The child has to point to the correct of 4 pictures.
• Used by psychologists and speech-language
pathologists
Battelle Developmental
Inventory,
2nd Edition
Jean Newborg
Riverside Publishing/Nelson Canada
Domains and Sub-domains
of the BDI2
Adaptive
Domain
Self-Care
Personal
Responsibility
PersonalSocial
Domain
Adult
Interaction
Peer
Interaction
Self-Concept
and Social
Role
Communication
Domain
Receptive
Communication
Motor Domain
Gross Motor
Cognitive Domain
Attention and
Memory
Fine Motor
Expressive
Communication
Perceptual
Motor
Reasoning and
Academic Skills
Perception and
Concepts
Some Common Criterion
Referenced Assessment
Tools
• Gessell
• Brigance Diagnostic Inventory of Early DevelopmentRevised
• Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System
(AEPS)
• Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP)
• Others?
Gesell Developmental
Schedules
• A developmental schedule used primarily with
infants and very young children
• Examines fine and gross motor, communication,
personal-social, and adaptive behaviors in
children 4 to 72 months
• Developed to help describe key benchmarks.
• Will provide a Developmental Quotient (DQ) but
mostly reported as age-equivalents.
•
Brigance Diagnostic
Inventory of Early
Development
Direct child and parent assessment;
parent observations
• Birth to 7 years of age
• Training: The examiner should have in
depth knowledge of child development and
be familiar with the manual procedures
Assessment, Evaluation,
and Programming System
(AEPS)
Bricker, Cripe, & Slentz (1993)
Paul H. Brookes
Assessment, Evaluation, and
Programming System (AEPS)
• Observation, direct assessment, and
parent/caregiver/therapist report
• Age Range (two versions): Birth to 3 years: 3 to
6 years
• Designed to be used on an on going basis to
monitor progress
• Can be used by direct service personnel and
specialists
Hawaii Early Learning Profile
(HELP)
• Two versions - Birth to Three and Preschool (3
to 6 years)
• Areas include: cognitive (including receptive
language), expressive language, fine & gross
motor, self-help adaptive, and social.
• Allows for adaptations for students with special
needs.
• Home and Center based formats