Purpose: Estimates suggest that between 10 percent to 25 percent of all young children display social, emotional, and behavior problems, many of which are severe enough to warrant a mental health diagnosis (e.g., attachment disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Children who display early signs of behavior problems typically do not "grow out" of them and such problems are likely to continue or worsen without intervention to improve behavior. However, there are few high quality assessment tools available to help care workers or parents accurately identify behavioral strengths and problem areas in young children. In addition, available instruments often do not assist in planning high quality appropriate intervention goals or allow for monitoring of a child's emotional and behavioral progress.

To address this need, researchers at the University of Oregon are developing the Social-Emotional Assessment Measure for assessing and monitoring social-emotional and behavioral development in infants and toddlers (i.e., birth to 3 years) with disabilities. The instrument is designed to assist in the prevention and early identification of social- emotional difficulties, as well as provide information about optimizing positive parent-child interactions in the first years of life.

Project Activities: In the first phase of the study, the researchers will pilot test the instrument with practitioners (e.g., teachers, interventionists, home visitors) to determine its feasibility, usability, and appropriateness. Based on the pilot study, the researchers will revise the instrument and evaluate the psychometric properties of the instrument (e.g., reliability, validity, item analysis, and sensitivity to growth of children's social-emotional behaviors). The researchers will then evaluate the impact of using the instrument on child outcomes and determine whether specialized training is necessary to ensure practitioners are appropriately using the instrument. Based on this evaluation, the researchers will make any necessary modifications to improve the quality of the instrument.

Products: The products from this study include a fully developed and validated measure of social-emotional competence of children. Published reports on the technical adequacy of the measure for the prevention and early identification of problem behaviors in infants and toddlers with disabilities will be available. A final publication version with acceptable technical adequacy will be compiled for publication in the instrument's technical manual.

Structured Abstract

Setting: Early intervention sites in Oregon and Pennsylvania.

Population: Early intervention practitioners (e.g., teachers, interventionists, home visitors) and caregivers. Phase 1 & 2 will include ratings on a total of 240 students; 160 students with disabilities and 80 students without disabilities. For Phase 3 a total of 12 early intervention sites, their associated staff, and 120 children ages 12 months to 24 months will participate.

Research Design and Methods: The study will be conducted in three main research phases: (1) pilot testing, (2) psychometric studies, and (3) experimentation. Lastly, the research team will focus on data analysis for the instrument's technical manual, product development, and dissemination. Phase 1 and 2 practitioners from identified early childhood programs will recruit and assess three to four families from diverse backgrounds. In addition, typically developing infants/toddlers will be recruited from community programs. In the first phase of the study, the researchers will pilot test the instrument with practitioners (e.g., teachers, interventionists, home visitors) to determine its feasibility, usability, and appropriateness. Based on the pilot study, the researchers will revise the instrument and evaluate the psychometric properties of the instrument (e.g., reliability, validity). During Phase 3, early intervention programs will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: assessment, assessment plus training, and comparison. The assessment group will be given copies of the instrument to administer, and the assessment plus training group will be given copies of the instrument plus an additional six hours of specialized training to assist staff in using the instrument. The control condition will be a comparison group that provides "services as usual" to the children and does not have access to the assessment instrument. The researchers will then evaluate the impact of using the instrument on child outcomes and determine whether specialized training is necessary to ensure practitioners are appropriately using the instrument. Based on this evaluation, the researchers will make any necessary modifications to improve the quality of the instrument.

Control Condition: The control condition is a comparison group that provides services as usual to the children and does not have access to the assessment instrument.

Key Measures: The Social-Emotional Assessment Measure is a curriculum-based assessment measure focused on the social-emotional development of young children. The instrument targets two different age intervals: infants with a developmental range of 3 months to 18 months and toddlers with a developmental range of 18 months to 36 months. It focuses on key child social-emotional behaviors and key adult/caregiver behaviors derived from 10 key child benchmarks (e.g., child shows empathy for others) and four adult/caregiver benchmarks (e.g., caregiver responds positively to child) which represent key social-emotional constructs derived from the literature on young children's social-emotional competence. Each assessment item is designed to address a benchmark and importantly, can be selected as an intervention goal.

Phase I includes the Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment and the Child Behavior Checklist 1 ½ - 5 as concurrent measures. Additional measures during Phase 3 include the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and the Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised. The Goal and Objective Rating Form will be used to evaluate the quality of the intervention goals written by practitioners. Information about satisfaction and utility will be collected throughout the phases.

Data Analytic Strategy: During Phase 1, the existing version of the instrument will be pilot tested. The primary analysis of this phase will be item response theory, particularly item analysis and vertical scaling research. In Phase 2, the instrument's items will be revised based on Phase 1 findings, and the revised instrument will undergo additional item analysis, as well as tests of reliability, validity, and sensitivity to growth. During the Phase 3 experimentation phase, the assessment instrument will be administered with each child at quarterly intervals, and the research team will examine differences in pre- and post-outcome measures administered at the beginning and end of the academic year.

Products and Publications

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Squires, J., Waddell, M., Clifford, J., Funk, M.K., Macy, M., Chen, C., and Hoselton, R. (2013). Psychometric Study of the Infant and Toddler Intervals of the Social Emotional Assessment Measure. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 33(2): 78–90. doi:10.1177/0271121412463445