Transcript Infant & Toddler Connection of Virginia

Determining Child
Status and Progress
Sandi Harrington, MA
Program Supervisor/Educator
Norfolk Infant Development Program
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Benefits
Requires us to talk about functional
behaviors, not test items
Incorporates the parents as active
and knowledgeable participants
Looks at all settings and situations
Bridges the gap between assessment
tools and real life
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Benefits
Is more meaningful to families
Prepares the family for setting IFSP
outcomes – thinking about skills they
want their child to have to function in
their daily family life
Guides us towards discipline-free,
contextualized goals
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Talking with Families
Determining child progress requires
we use the family’s expertise and
knowledge of their child across
settings and situations.
Our discussion becomes inclusive with
the family as an equal source of
information for assessment purposes.
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Talking with Families
One of the biggest shifts in practice,
for many systems, was the move to
compare the children in Part C to
their same age peers.
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Talking with Families
Looking at children in the frame of
same age peers allows us to have
authentic, honest discussions with
families about their child’s strengths
and needs.
We need to be comfortable with
reporting strengths AND areas of
delay, while being family friendly.
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Thinking Functionally
Not just…
Know how to make eye
contact, smile, and give a
hug
Know how to imitate a
gesture when prompted
by others
Use finger in pointing
motion
Show a skill in a specific
situation
Infant & Toddler Connection of Virginia
But does he/she…
Initiate affection toward
caregivers and respond to others’
affection
Watch what a peer says or does
and incorporate it into his/her
own play
Point to indicate needs or wants
Use a skill in actions across
settings and situations to
accomplish something meaningful
to the child
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The Three Child
Indicators
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Children have positive
social relationships
Involves:
Relating with adults
Relating with other children
For older children- following rules related to
groups or interacting with others
Includes areas like:
Attachment/separation/ autonomy
Expressing emotions and feelings
Learning rules and expectations
Social interactions and play
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Questions to Consider
How does the child communicate
her/his feelings?
How does the child interact with
parents, grandparents, siblings, other
children, childcare workers, etc?
Consider progression of social development
Smiles – holds out arms to be picked up - Likes to look at faces laughs aloud - distinction of strangers – parallel play – interest in
other kids – associative play
Consider relationship with primary caregivers
Soothed by caregiver - varying cries – reliance on primary caregiver
– stranger anxiety
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Children acquire and use
knowledge and skills
Involves:
Thinking
Reasoning
Remembering
Problem-solving
Using symbols and language
Understanding physical and social worlds
Includes:
Early concepts – symbols, pictures, numbers,
classification, spatial relationships
Imitation
Object permanence
Expressive language and communication
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Questions to Consider
How does the child learn?
Consider progression of how children learn about
their environment
Mouthing toys – eyes explore toys – hands
explore toys – child interact with the toys to
produce noise – books / pointing to pictures –
points and indicates - “what’s that” question –
imitation
Consider progression and complexity of imitation
How willing is the child to imitate, do you see the
child acting out everyday events in their own
play?
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Children take appropriate action
to meet their needs
Involves:
Taking care of basic needs
Getting from place to place
Using tools
In older children, contributing to their own
health and safety
Includes:
Integrating motor skills to complete tasks
Self-help skills (e.g., dressing, feeding,
grooming, toileting, household responsibility)
Acting on the world to get what one wants
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Questions to Consider
How does child let caregiver know what
she/he wants?
How does child get to his/her toys?
What does the child do to participate in
her/his own care?
Consider motor skills
How does child get to toys – rolls, crawls, walks, climbs, runs
How does child use hands to manipulate toys & food – raking, pincer grasp
Consider self-help skills to take care of her/himself
Dressing – helps with dressing, takes off some clothes, puts/attempts to put some clothes on
Toileting – tells when wet/soiled, attempts to use the toilet
Feeding – finger feeding, spoon dexterity
Consider communication skills
How does the child tell the caregiver when she/he is hungry, thirsty, needs changing
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Determining a Rating
To determine a rating, we must first
understand what would be considered
age appropriate development across
all 3 indicators
Once we have a pictures of that in
our mind, we can use the decision
tree to come to a conclusion
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Using Evaluation/Assessment
Information to Inform the Rating
Evaluation/Assessment information
can assist in deciding how close a
child’s functioning is to typical
Evaluation/Assessment information
should be used to inform the rating
decision, but needs to be placed in
proper context
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Using Evaluation/Assessment
Information to Inform the Rating
Example:
A child learning to sign will not “pass” items
related to speaking
If the child can sign to accomplish the same
outcome one might through speaking (e.g.,
take action to meet needs), the fact that the
child “fails” some assessment items is not
relevant and should not enter the rating.
Key point: Evaluation/Assessment results
are how a child performs on a selected
set of items. No more. No less.
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Decision Tree
The decision tree is the tool that will
help us to make determinations of
each child’s status and progress – if
we use the decision tree correctly, we
will be able to have a high degree of
consistency across IFSP teams
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Decision Tree
Go to www.infantva.org
Virginia’s System for Determination of
Child Progress
Click on “Decision Tree”
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Indicator Ratings
The team determining the rating needs to reach
consensus on a number between 1 and 7.
Descriptions are given for numbers
7
5
3
1
–
–
–
–
Completely
Somewhat
Emerging
Not Yet
Score 2, 4, or 6 if the child’s functioning is “in
between”. That is, the child functions with more
skill than the lower number, but not quite as
described in the higher number.
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Determining a Rating
A few things to keep in mind:
There are many different ways that
children can function effectively
Effective functioning that takes forms
that are less common should not receive
low ratings, unless the pattern of
behavior relied on may interfere with
future development
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The Take Home Message
Indicators are not primarily about
data.
It is about doing good things for
children and families,
And using data as a tool to help
programs and providers know
whether what they are doing is
making a difference
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For More Information
www.the-eco-center.org
Note: Many of the slides and handouts were developed
from information on this Early Childhood Outcome
(ECO) Center Website.
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