Working Proposal of Assessment Services, Cotlands Community Outreach Program

Assesments will strive to be comprehensive, redundant, and multimodal. Developmental assessments should include cognitve, motor, and social-emotional levels, including parent-child relations and home environment. Psychoeducational assessments should cover cognitive abilities, academic skills, and social-emotional functioning, as well as other factors, such as home environment, socioeconomic conditions, quality of education, and physical illnesss, each of which can affect a child’s capacities to learn and benefit from education. African models of child development will be incorporated, such as the importance of siblings, peers, and related adult community members in contributing to child development. The latter will be conceptualized later, in collaboration with key informants from Cotlands community careworkers and other sources in situ.

Infants & Toddlers (0-2 years)

Cognitive/developmental assessment. Begin with screening (Bayleys-III) with primary caregiver; a translator will be needed. If a significant developmental delay is flagged, administer full Bayley’s Scales-III to estimate nature of delay; a translator will be needed.

Social-emotional assessment. Administer Greenspan Developmental Milestones with primary caregiver; a translator will be needed.

Home environment. Administer the H.O.M.E. at the child’s home with both child & caregiver present. Ideally, this would be done as part of a careworker’s visit, so that questions and replies can be translated. Administer the BDI-II and Coping Response Inventory in a structured interview with the primary caregiver, with translator.

Preschoolers (3-6 years)

Cognitive/developmental assessment. Administer selected subtests from the KABC-II and the Leiter to estimate child’s baseline measures of cognitive abilities.

Social-emotional and resiliency assessment. Administer BERS-2 with primary caregiver with translator. Use separate form with careworker’s observations. Administer the ASEBA and/or TSCYC with caregiver and careworker.

Home environment. Administer the H.O.M.E. at the child’s home with both child & caregiver present. Ideally, this would be done as part of a careworker’s visit, so that questions and replies can be translated. Administer the BDI-II and Coping Response Inventory in a structured interview with the primary caregiver, with translator.

Middle Childhood (7-12 years)

Cognitive/developmental assessment. Administer KABC-II non-verbal subtests, selected Leiter subtests, and Bender-II to estimate cognitive abilities. For bilingual students, add verbal subtests from the KABC-II Mental Processing Index.

Achievement assessment. Administer selected subtests from the KTEA-2 to estimate levels of academic achievement. Estimate English language competency for children receiving school instruction in English. Identify more ecologically valid achievement measures.

Social-emotional and resiliency assessment. Administer BERS-2 and Resiliency Scales. Administer to caregivers the ASEBA using Zulu or Xhosa translations where appropriate, or with translator. If child high on anxiety/depression ASEBA scales, administer TCYC with caregiver and careworker. With careworker, administer to the child the Depression and Anxiety versions from the BYI.

Home environment. Administer the H.O.M.E. at the child’s home with both child & caregiver present. Ideally, this would be done as part of a careworker’s visit, so that questions and replies can be translated. Administer the BDI-II and Coping Response Inventory in a structured interview with the primary caregiver, with translator.

Adolescents (13-18 years)

Cognitive/developmental assessment. Administer KABC-II to compose Mental Processing Index, selected Leiter subtests, and Bender-II to estimate cognitive abilities. Add KABC-II CHC ability subtests, depending on child’s English competency, to estimate full range of cognitive abilities.

Achievement assessment. Administer the KTEA-2 to estimate levels of academic achievement.

Social-emotional and resiliency assessment . Administer Resilency Scales and ASEBA YSR to child, with careworker translations as needed. If elevations on depression/anxiety scale, administer TCC and the Depression and Anxiety versions from the BYI to child. Administer the ASEBA to caregiver using Zulu or Xhosa translations where appropriate, or with translator.

Home environment. Administer the H.O.M.E. at the child’s home with both child & caregiver present (up to age 16). Ideally, this would be done as part of a careworker’s visit, so that questions and replies can be translated. Administer the BDI-II and Coping Response Inventory in a structured interview with the primary caregiver, with translator.