Six Categories of Assessment Methods

Question 1

What are the six categories of assessment methods?

Answer 1

1. Clinical interviews.
2. Behavioral observation.
3. Behavior rating scales.
4. Self-report scales.
5. Projective/expressive techniques.
6. Intellectual tests.

Question 2

Clinical interviews

Answer 2

The child assessment process is very different from an adult, where the clinical psychologist typically interviews not only the child but also other people who, by virtue of their contact with the child, can shed light on the child’s problem. Parents and teachers are perhaps most common, but depending on the problem and its circumstances, a number of other people can provide relevant data: siblings, grandparents, other relatives, pediatricians, friends, child-care workers, or tutors, to name a few.

Question 3

Behavioral Observation

Answer 3

The Psychologist may require traveling to the setting where the behavior problem takes place, such as the child’s school or home. Typically uses a formal, systematic method of observing and coding the child’s behavior (Direct Observation; Child Behavior Checklist; the Student Observation System; Behavior Assessment System for Children, and the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction).

Question 4

Behavior Rating Scales

Answer 4

These are standardized pencil-and-paper forms that parents, teachers, or other adults complete regarding a child’s presenting problems. They typically consist of a list of behaviors, each of which is followed by a range of responses from which the respondent chooses the one most applicable to the child.

Question 5

What are the commonly used behavior rating scales?

Answer 5

1. Child Behavior Checklist (part of the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment), for a wide range of problem behaviors;
   2. Behavior Assessment System for Children, also for a wide range of the problem
      behaviors;
   3. Conners’ Rating Scale, for attention-related problems; and
   4. Children’s Depression Inventory, for childhood depression (Achenbach, 2009b, 2015a; 2015b; Bérubé & Achenbach, 2007; Kamphaus, 2015; Kovacs, 2015; Merrell & Harlacher, 2008).

Question 6

What are the advantages and disadvantages of behavior rating scales?

Answer 6

Advantages of behavior rating scales include their convenience, inexpensiveness, and objectivity.

Disadvantages include the fact that they restrict respondents from elaborating on their responses and the possibility that the scale items do not adequately capture the child’s problem behaviors

Question 7

Self-report Scales

Answer 7

Similar to self-report scales for adults the use of these measures assumes that the client’s
reading level, attention span, and motivation to complete the test are appropriate. For these reasons, self-report scales are more commonly used with adolescents than with younger children (Cashel, 2002).

Question 8

Projective/expressive techniques.

Answer 8

The Children’s Apperception Test is an adaptation of the TAT storytelling test that features animal rather than human characters, about which young clients are asked to tell a story.

Also current and culturally relevant is the Tell-Me-A-Story, or TEMAS, technique (Costantino, Dana, & Malgady, 2007; Costantino & Malgady, 1999; Costantino, Malgady, & Rogler, 1988; Teglasi, 2010).

In addition to projective tests such as these in which clients respond with words, this category of children’s tests includes some expressive tests in which clients respond with drawings.

These drawings, when accurately interpreted, are believed to communicate important information about clients’ personalities. In one such test, the Draw-a-Person test, the client is given blank paper and is simply instructed to draw a whole person.

Similarly, in the Kinetic Family Drawing technique, the drawing consists of the client’s family engaged in some activity, and the House-Tree-Person test requires a drawing of the three items listed in its title.

Question 9

Intellectual tests

Answer 9

Intellectual tests for children generally consist of IQ tests and achievement tests, to assess intellectual functioning and they stand apart from behavioral and emotional functioning.

In a full psychological evaluation, a clinical child psychologist may use methods from all these categories, but in some common types of evaluations such as evaluations for a specific learning disorder, the emphasis may be almost exclusively on intellectual tests.