Measuring Up Assessment of Infants and Toddlers

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Measuring Up Assessment of Infants and Toddlers
Infant Toddler Specialists of Indiana 2nd Annual
Conference August 23 24, 2006 Purdue University
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Why do we assess development?

• Detect developmental delays
• Parent/teacher/caregiver information
• Programming - Curriculum
• Accountability

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Assessing For Developmental Delays

• Identify children in need of diagnostic
  evaluation for early intervention services
• Birth to three years IDEA Part C
• Eligibility 25 delay in one domain or 20 delay
  in two or more domains
• Mental or physical diagnosis/condition, as
  specified in statute
• Using standardized or criterion referenced tools
• Informed clinical opinion when tools are not
  appropriate or child is un-testable
• Three to five years IDEA Part B/619
• School psychological evaluation
• Eligibility 13 categories

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Assessing for Parent/Caregiver Information

• Is child on target with developmental skills?
• What can parent/caregiver work on to enhance
  development?
• Alleviate parent fears educating
  parent/caregiver on typical development
• Periodic developmental progress reports

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Assessing for Programming

• What is childs present skill level?
• Areas of strength
• Areas of need
• Anticipating next skills
• Planning activities to develop skills

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Assessing for Accountability

• Office of Special Education Programs IDEA Part
  C and Part B 619 child outcomes (No Child Left
  Behind)
• Head Start/Early Head Start
• Healthy Families
• Program Evaluation
• Individual teacher evaluation
• Parents

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How do we assess development?

• Observation
• Screening Tools
• Assessment Tools

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Developmental Domains

• Cognitive
• Physical (gross and fine motor)
• Communication
• Social-emotional
• Self-help

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Exercise 1

• Washing hands and snack
• Daniel 4 years, 2 months

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Screening Tools

• Used to make a judgment about developmental
  progress in order to determine if further
  assessment is necessary.
• Do not provide detailed descriptions of
  developmental functioning.
• Do not help design intervention strategies.

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Commonly Used Screening Tools

• Ages Stages
• Denver Developmental II
• BDI 2 - Screener
• Bayley III - Screener

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Types of Assessment Tools

• Norm-referenced
• Criterion-referenced
• Performance based

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Norm-referenced Assessment

• Used to compare the performance of an individual
  child to that of a normative group.
• Group norms are developed by obtaining the
  performance of a representative sample.
• Standardized process critical to the validity
  and reliability of the test

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Norm-referenced Assessment

• Usually reports results in
• Developmental age
• IQ
• Percentile scores

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Example Norm-referenced tool

• Battelle Developmental Inventory, Second Edition
  (BDI2)
• Developmental Assessment of Young Children (DAYC)
• Bayley Scales of Infant
  Development, Third Edition (Bayley
  III)

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Criterion-Referenced Assessment

• Used to determine if a child has achieved mastery
  in a particular domain
• Childs behavior is measured in relation to a
  specific behavior, rather than a normative group
• Focus is on what the child knows or can do and
  not how the child compares to other children.

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Examples

• Assessment, Evaluation and programming System
  (AEPS)
• Hawaiian Early Learning Profile (HELP)
• Indiana Standards Tool for Alternative reporting
  (ISTAR)

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Demonstration

• AEPS On-Line
• ISTAR

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Performance Based Assessment

• Allows children to demonstrate their competencies
  by acting on the environment, solving problems,
  and interacting with others in a
  natural context (ex. play)
• Focus on the quality of skills
• Looks at multiple sources of
  information

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Examples

• High Scope
• Creative Curriculum
• Ounce Scale
• Transdisciplinary Play-Based Assessment
• Focused Observations

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Psychometric Considerations

• Reliability
• Refers to the consistency or dependability of a
  test
• Determined by statistical analysis
• No test is 100 reliable, due to measurement
  error
• Reported as a correlation coefficient
• .80 is sufficient for research use
• .90 preferred for clinical use

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Validity

• How well does the test measure what it was
  designed to measure?
• Validity is determined in reference to the
  particular use for which the test was designed.

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Sensitivity and Specificity

• Sensitivity
• A statistical measure that indicates the
  proportion of children at risk who are correctly
  identified by the tool.
• Specificity
• Refers to the proportion of children not at risk
  who are correctly excluded from further
  assessment

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Best Practices

• Children should be observed over time and in
  different contexts.
• Multiple sources of information should be used,
  including
• Parent report
• Focused observation of the child in typical
  activities
• Use of screening and assessment tools

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Best Practices

• Children reveal highest level of functioning in
  the context of spontaneous, motivated
  interactions with caregivers.
• An understanding of developmental sequences and
  timetables is necessary, given the considerable
  variation in the normal range of development.

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Best Practices

• Assessment should identify current competencies
  and strengths as well as the next step in the
  development sequence to facilitate growth in
  developmental skills.
• Assessment is a collaborative process.
• Assessment has an impact on the family
  regardless of whether intervention is needed.

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Exercise 2

• Christian 2 years 7 months