Module 7: Child and Development Assessment Flashcards
How do we assess children?
- Norm-referenced tests
- Interviews: parent and child, teachers, siblings.
- Observations
- Informal assessment procedures
Norm Referenced Tests:
- Standardized intellectual/cognitive tests
- Standardized academic achievement tests
- Standardized behaviour rating scales
History Interviews
• Child in interview process, depends on child’s age:
o Understanding of the assessment process.
o Worries, likes and or dislikes.
o Feelings toward school.
o Perception of the home environment.
o Perceptions of their friendships with other children.
o gage their understanding of why they are being assessed and can put their anxiety at bay.
o Family structure,
o what they like and dislike about school.
o Whether they worry about school, why?
o Asking about friends and teachers
• Parent interview: o Medical history o Developmental history, including milestones. o Family structure. o Conflict in the home? o Perception of the child’s friendships o Academic achievement o Onset, duration and triggers for present problems. o developmental and medical history, brain injury? o Hypoxia at birth? o Any difficulties at birth. o Triggers?
• Teacher interview: o Academic achievement o Classroom behaviour o Interactions with other peers o Onset, Duration and triggers for any challenging behaviours.
Informal Assessment Procedures:
- In some cases, psychologists need to supplement standardised norm-referenced tests with some informal assessment procedures.
- Supplement other areas
- Asking for personal information: need to let them know how you will share information.
- School report cards. They are informal because you haven’t given them.
- Samples of the child’s drawing, writing or artwork (depending on child’s age).
- School report cards: considered informal, because the psychologist has not given these assessments.
Adaptive Functioning (AF):
refers to how effectively individuals cope with everyday life demands, and how they meet standards of personal independence expected of someone of that age and socioeconomic and cultural background.
There are various domains of AF:
- Conceptual Skills: Language, reading, writing, reasoning, knowledge, and memory.
- Social skills: empathy, social responsibility, interpersonal communication skills, and the ability to establish and maintain friendships.
- Practical skills: self-management in areas such as personal care, job responsibilities, money management, recreation, and organizing school and work tasks.
- A normative comparison.
- Levels of severity can only be defined by adaptive functioning not IQ.
- Adaptive functioning needs to be looked at across domains.
Global Developmental Delay Versus ID
- Until a standardized IQ test can be administered, professionals may use the term global developmental delay to describe a child who is experiencing difficulties in various areas of their skill development.
- According to DSM-5, global developmental delay is reserved for children under the age of 5, who are considered too young to receive a formal diagnosis of intellectual disability.
- Too young to participate in standardised testing.
- Not all children with a delay may not later be diagnosed with a learning disorder.
Causes if intellectual disability:
A specific cause of ID can be identified in approximately two-thirds of cases.
Known causes include:
• Brain injury or infection occurring before, during or after birth.
• Growth or nutrition problems.
• Faulty chromosomes and genes.
• Babies born long before the expected birth date.
• Drug misuse during pregnancy.
• Health and medical problems during childhood
• Environmental deprivation
• Exposure to toxins.
o 1/3 are unknown causes.
o Environmental deprivation.
o Excessive alcohol consumption.
Assessment of Specific learning Disorder:
- Academic achievement: the degree of previous learning of accomplishment in various types of subject matter, or subject areas.
- In clinical practice, psychologists use individually administered achievement tests to measure oral language, reading, writing and mathematics (among other areas too).
- Achievement tests are contrasted with intelligence tests, which measure aptitude or ability to learn.
Why assess for learning disorders?
- High prevalence: 5-15% of children have learning difficulties (DSM-V).
- Learning disorders have been shown to intensify symptoms of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders.
- Children with learning difficulties have been shown to have higher levels of aggression and lower self-esteem.
- Children with leaning difficulties are ore likely to be bullied.
- Increase in anxiety with those who have dyslexia.
Measures of Behaviour and Emotion:
Achenbach Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL):
Conners rating Scales – Third Edition:
