Psychological Methods Of Child Assessment

Jacquelin Goldman, Claudia L'Engle Stein

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000144260
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This book provides some common background in child development and assists the provider of child assessment services to determine appropriate procedures to answer questions and investigate specific problems. It is intended for graduate students in child clinical psychology and school psychology.

PART I

Psychological Considerations in Child Assessment

CHAPTER 1

Principles of Child Assessment

ETHICAL ISSUES

When should a psychologist see a child? Under what conditions may the child be seen? Who should be privy to the information about the child? These are not idle questions.

Several months ago a man walked into the clinic room where I (JG) was working on a report. He announced his name and said he was the biological father of Shirley B., a child whom we had seen for evaluation several weeks before. He wanted to get a copy of the report. I was a little taken aback by the man’s sudden appearance and authoritative manner, but at the same time something in the back of my mind was alerted to inquire more. “Biological father,” I repeated, “Do you have custody of the child?”

To make a long story short, it developed that this father was divorced from the mother of the child who had custody of the child. He was interested in obtaining the information to aid him in a custody battle so that he could prove the mother to be unfit as a parent. There were many legal and ethical issues involved in this situation. The legal issues may vary from state to state as there are no uniform guidelines as to legal rights of divorced parents. The ethical issues are also very complex. The mother of the child had brought the child in for an evaluation voluntarily to get information to help her in providing for the child’s interests. The child, who was in her custody, was the family member not represented by legal counsel. Each parent retained the services of an attorney in their custody battle.

The psychologist who provides assessment services may easily encounter similar situations. The ethical guidelines for psychologists are not clear on all points. Most psychologists would try to take the child’s needs into account. In some states both parents have rights to access to information about the child, even though one of them may retain custody. In other states only the parent with custody would be legally entitled to this information. Sometimes ethical questions are so predominant that even when legal rights are clear-cut, the psychologist may want to consider and discuss the possibility of conflict between ethical and legal issues with the child’s legal custodian. Not all problems can be anticipated in advance, but many potential difficulties are predictable and can be discussed so as to minimize any negative effect on the child.

In bringing the ethical issue out early in this chapter, our purpose is to underscore the fact that in working with children, many ethical issues should be expected to arise. Because children are dependent upon others who are legally responsible for them, and because parents are often at legal odds with one another or with juvenile authorities, there are many times when the psychologist will be called upon to consider at what point the child is truly served. In some cases the most ethical part that a psychologist can play may be to refuse to provide services, if those services appear to ensnarl a child as a pawn in a fight between parents. Sometimes confronting the parents with this reality is of greater service to a child than would be the assessment which is requested. On the other hand, many times matters are more straightforward, parents are not divided in their efforts to do the best thing for the child, and everyone is cooperative. At the outset, the psychologist must determine enough of the familial situation to be able to act in the child’s best interests.

DEFINING THE QUESTIONS

Referral complaints are raised by adult caretakers who feel ineffective or who are confronted with others who are dissatisfied with their children’s performance. The complaints may be roughly grouped into retardations, fixations, regressions, and deviations. Retardations involve lack of or slower than normal development. Fixations imply that a child developed normally until some period at which further growth failed to occur in the expected way. Regressions involve a return to a more primitive form of functioning than that which has been previously attained. Deviations occur when growth takes a distorted form. Different forms of psychopathology occur if the deviation relates to cognitive function, affective functions, or conduct.

The psychologist must consider the statements and questions posed by the referral sources and entertain the general nature and content implied by them. From this process the psychologist begins to define questions in the terms which will direct the nature and content of the assessment process. In a later chapter we will discuss in more detail the decisions which the psychologist makes. However, here we will simply note that the psychologist will decide whether the evaluation will entail an intellectual assessment, a personality assessment, a family assessment, other specialized techniques, and/or further consultations. It may be helpful, for example, to make either home or school visits in some cases. Since these procedures are costly, few practitioners outside of university settings employ them consistently. However, in some cases, the utility of extramural consultations is so clear that they should be considered and employed as appropriate.

THE CHILD

Each child comes to the assessment situation with some sort of preparation. The preparation may range from nothing, to exasperated threats by a parent to take the child to someone who can “straighten him out,” to empathic understanding that the child is suffering. Regardless of what parents or others mention on the telephone or by other contact, the psychologist should not assume that the child has experienced the preparation in the manner that the parents perceive it to be given. Both the child’s cognitive understanding and the child’s motivational set will influence the manner in which the assessment situation will be received.

Small children who do not really understand what a psychologist is may have no understanding of the purpose of their visit. In fact, they are likely to attribute the reason to something that they have done to displease their parents or to some shortcoming on their own part. Older children may have an appreciation of parental frustration or concern but may not see the problems in the same light. In extreme cases, in which adolescent suicidal attempts are involved, there may be very little overlap between parental and child views of problems (Jacobs, 1971).

The cognitive level of development of the child will determine, in part, whether the child attributes behavior alone or intentionality also as part of the reason for the referral. Other significant cognitive developmental factors will include the child’s understanding of causality in terms of time, space, and number, which in turn may affect how he interprets sequences of events that have taken place and caused concern among adults. In other words, the degree of egocentricity which limits the child’s ability to consider other points of view will influence his understanding of problems.

Aside from these cognitive factors, a child’s understanding of reasons for referral is affected by the social and emotional variables that characterize familial and peer relationships. The degree to which a child’s needs to be accepted, valued, and competent are frustrated, together with the strength of psychological defenses which protect the child from feelings of rejection, worthlessness, and incompetence, will affect the particular interpretation that the child makes of the problems that lead to referral. Parents, teachers, and others may have some appreciation of the child’s understanding and may be able to help the psychologist anticipate some of the child’s response to evaluation. However, frequently these adults are frustrated because they do not understand the child or cannot accept the child’s point of view. The psychologist will need to be open so that such differences can be observed where they exist.

ESTABLISHING A WORKING RAPPORT

Some people feel very much at home working with children. Others do not or have to learn or relearn how to relate to children. Children who are docile or cooperative present few problems. One simply has to explain to these children what is expected and they will comply and produce whatever the examiner requires in the nature of performance. The shy or nonverbal child presents a different picture. The psychologist must take a stance which puts the child at ease so that discomfort on the child’s part does not interfere with performance. Before this can be done the psychologist will have to do a little self-analysis to make sure that the child has not made the situation so stressful that the examiner has become defensive.

Very often shy children want to be able to enter a situation cautiously and test it out. The examiner can help the child by engaging him briefly in conversation in a casual manner about a topic which is not very personal: When did the child have to get up to come to the session, if it is in the early morning, or was the child in school, if the session occurs later in the day? The idea is simply to get the child to interact on a casual basis. The examiner can then ask what the child understands about the reason for the visit, clarify matters if there is some confusion, and explain the child’s role in the evaluation.

Some children present more difficulty in establishing a working rapport. These are children who have been brought unwillingly to the assessment situation. They may be belligerent, defensive, angry, or simply determined not to cooperate. The examiner usually will do well to acknowledge that the child seems unhappy about being in the situation and to inquire about why. Often the child will perceive that the parents or others have brought him to someone who will act as their agent in getting him to accept their views of the problems and problem behavior. As such the psychologist is in the enemy camp and has to be resisted. To the extent that can be managed, the examiner will usually find it helpful to explain to the child that by his participation the child will be able to influence the outcome of problem situations that he confronts. When children are able to see that cooperation does not signify defeat, but rather a way to exert some control over situations, they usually will try to take advantage of the opportunity.

A few children are not trusting enough to permit themselves to take part in an examination. Others, if they go through the motions, give only the minimal performance to get the experience over and done. The psychologist has to decide whether it is better to terminate the attempt to perform an evaluation in such cases, or whether to continue to push for better performance. While there is no advice that can be written in stone, it usually works better to recognize the child’s discomfort when it is so extreme and to offer to terminate the session, which will sometimes prompt a child to decide to continue. Other times the offer is accepted. In those cases the psychologist should recognize that there may be a future time when the child will want to return. If at all possible, this should be offered as a potential later choice. If it is not possible, the psychologist should simply say so and accept the decision. Likewise, if a session has to be terminated, the psychologist should explain why this was done to the parents and discuss the value of whether and when a new session should be scheduled.

In those cases in which a session has had to be terminated, the psychologist will want to review the events. Very few sessions have to come to this point and, if the frequency of terminated sessions is high, it probably means that the practitioner is mishandling the situation. However, it is probably vanity to expect to be able to evaluate all children, regardless of their attitudes and perceptions.

KEEPING THE CHILD ON TASK

After a working rapport has been established, the examiner will need to set conditions so that the child will work on task. A good working rapport is neither so distant that the examiner appears uninterested in the child so that only the task is important, nor so personal that the task becomes unimportant and all that matters is the child. It is difficult to keep a child on task if the child is so preoccupied with how the examiner responds on a personal basis that the task is denigrated by comparison.

Clear instructions will help to keep a child on task. Only those instructions for the immediate task at hand should be given. If there is any hesitation or some sign of discomfort, the examiner should take time to determine whether the child understands the task. Shy children will often say they understand a task when they do not so that they do not have to be embarrassed by the admission. Sometimes inquiring about signs of discomfort will reveal that the child needs to visit the bathroom. It is best to get all these problems resolved so that the child can attend to the instructions and feel more at ease.

The physical environment of the assessment is a major determinant in how well a child can remain on task. If the child has problems with distractibility, the nature of the physical environment becomes even more important. The room should be well lit, but not so brightly lit that it is noticeable. Furniture should be comfortable, of a size that the child’s feet can reach the floor. Work tables should permit the child to reach test materials without straining or having problems seeing the materials. The room should be pleasant in tone but without many decorations, which can be distracting to some children. If a viewing mirror is present, the child should be seated so that reflections do not create distractions.

The examiner should sit near the child so that they can both reach materials easily. However, it is wise to keep materials on the side of the examiner away from the child. In the case of children with attentional disorders these materials should be kept out of view as much as possible. The examiner wants to set up a situation in which the task at hand is a very clear figure against neutral background conditions. This will permit the child to give a good performance. Of course, in the case of children who are distractible the difference between performance under these ideal conditions and performance in the classroom may be a measure of the deficits incurred when distraction occurs. The examiner should not assume that good performance under ideal conditions implies a similar level of performance under other conditions.

SELECTING ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES

In a later chapter we will discuss the rationale for selection and order of assessment techniques. For the time being let us confine our discussion to the selection of age-appropriate tasks and some of the situational factors which may be important in ordering their administration. For children who need structure to help them calm down and stay on task, it is often best to give intellectual assessment procedu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I. Psychological Considerations in Child Assessment
• Part II. Methods of Child Assessment
• Part III. Applications of Principles and Methods
• Index