Assessing Behavior.pptx for children to learn

Learning Objectives
 Be able to discuss the different situations that require
behavioral observation
 Describe different types of behavioral observation
 Discuss the various uses of behavioral observation
with children
 Summarize the behavioral observation activity that
we did in class
 Describe commonly used assessments of childhood
behavioral and emotional problems.

Assessing Behavior
 We all engage in the assessment of behavior on a regular basis
 We observe others behavior, or perhaps our own, and make
inferences about internal processes (e.g., thoughts, emotions,
motivations)
 Two major uses:
 When the goal is to measure overt behavior
 When it is difficult or impossible to evaluate the underlying
processes guiding behavior (emotions and thoughts) PSYC

Behavioral Assessment
 Behavioral assessments help practitioners and
researchers determine:
 The degree to which specific behaviors cluster
together
 The associations between behaviors and covert
processes (emotions and thoughts)
 Behavioral assessments can be used to predict
outcomes, such as the likelihood of a clinical
diagnosis

Behavioral Rating Scales
 Behavior rating scales can measure:
 The frequency of a behavior
 The intensity of a behavior
 Can be completed by:
 A trained observer
 A reliable informant
 The person of interest

Behavior Rating Scales, cont’d.
 Inventories that ask informants to rate an
individual on a number of dimensions.
 Informants may be parents, teachers, a
spouse, or health care worker.
 Often used with children and adolescents.

Benefits of Behavior Rating Scales
 Children may have difficulty reporting feelings and thoughts
 Cost-effective and time-efficient
 Having informants complete the scales allows evaluation of
less common behaviors, across different settings
 Multiple raters/informants provide a broad sample of
behaviors across settings and times.

Benefits of Behavior Rating Scales,
cont’d.
 Facilitate accurate diagnosis
 Predicts future behavior and learning problems
 Helps detect changes in behavior
 Predicts what types of interventions are likely to
be effective
 Crucial for clinical child interventions
 Important in the practice of evidence-based
treatments

Weaknesses of Behavior Rating Scales
 Subject to response sets
 May be less helpful when assessing
“internalizing” problems
 Ratings of behavior are imprecise

Direct Observation
 Oldest method of behavioral assessment; still
widely used
 Observe the examinee in natural setting
 Behaviors are specified and counted
 Provides true ratio scale data
 Adds another dimension to assessment
 Observer can note antecedents, as well as
consequences.

Direct Observation
 Can occur with or without a standardized
recording scheme
 Standardized observation forms:
 Enhance observer training
 Observer impartiality
 Improve consistency and accuracy
 Do limit the flexibility of direct observation
 Advantages seen as outweighing the limitations

Behavior Assessment of Children
 Direct Observation
 Behavior specialists observe behavior and count the frequency
and intensity of target behaviors.
 Two types:
 Structured interaction between a child and a caregiver (usually
the mom).
 Observation of the child performing various tasks, sometimes
in different settings
 Used in research settings, early childhood primary health
programs, clinical diagnostic approaches, schools.

Behavioral Assessment of Children: Direct
Observation, cont’d.
 Evaluation of the mother-child relationship
 Attachment style is a vital predictor of developmental
outcomes
 Identifying at-risk children early in life permits appropriate
supports to be put in place
 A wide variety of behavioral assessment tools are available to
evaluate the quality of mother-child interaction
 The Strange Situation test that evaluates attachment style of
the child is widely used

 Assessment of Mother-Child Relationship
 Quality
 Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is based on direct behavioral
observation of the quality of the mother-child relationship and
then uses direct observation coaching to make corrections in
the mother’s behavior
 Many benefits of the early evaluation/early intervention
approach to child, family and society, but much resistance to
widespread population health programs
 More commonly used in the U.S. and across the U.K.

Behavioral Assessment: Depressed Mothers
and Their Children

Behavioral Assessment: Depressed Mothers
and Their Children, cont’d.

Behavioral Assessment: Depressed Mothers and
Their Children, cont’d.

 Parent-Child Pre-literacy Activities Rating Scale
 Proposed adjunct to the Read to Me! Program
 Pilot study evaluated mother-infant relationship
while reading
 Used The Global Rating Scales of Mother-Infant
Interaction

 Indirect Behavioral Assessment of Children
 Usually relies on parent and teacher reports
 The most widely used approach to evaluating
childhood behavioral and emotional troubles
 Child Behavior Checklist is the most common

 Achenbach System of Empirically
 Based Assessment (ASEBA)
 Child behavior Checklist (CBCL)
 Teacher Report Form (TRF)
 Scales contain two basic sections
 The first section collects information about the child’s
activities and competencies in areas such as recreation, social
functioning, and school.
 The second section assesses problem behaviors.

 Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment
(ASEBA)
 Child behavior Checklist (CBCL)
 Teacher Report Form (TRF)
 Scales contain two basic sections
 The first section collects information about the child’s
activities and competencies in areas such as
recreation, social functioning, and school.
 The second section assesses problem behaviors.

ASEBA
 Computer-scoring software is available Strengths
 Relatively easy to use
 Time efficient
 Have a rich history of clinical and research
applications

 BASC 3rd Edition
 Behavioral Assessment Scales for Children
 A Pearson product…like the text book an integrated set of instruments that
includes:
 Teacher Rating Scale (TRS)
 Parent Rating Scale (PRS)
 Self-report scales
 A classroom observation system
 The Parenting Relationship Questionnaire
 A structured developmental history

BASC-3, cont’d.
 Authors recommend that interpretation follow a “top
down” approach
 The clinician starts at the most global level
 Then progresses to more specific levels
 Most global measure is the behavioral symptoms
 Index (BSI)
 Reflects the overall level of behavioral problems
 Provides clinicians nonspecific index of pathology

BASC-3, cont’d.
 The clinician then proceeds to the four lower order composite
scores
 The third level of analysis involves examining the 16 clinical
and adaptive scales.
 Finally, clinicians may examine the individual items.
 The TRS and PRS have several unique features that promote
their use.
 Contain a validity scale
 Assess both negative and adaptive behaviors
 Provide three norm-referenced comparisons

Student Observation System (SOS)
 A component of the BASC-3
 Allows for the observation of 14 dimensions of
behavior
 Useful in any structured setting that has educational
goals
 Uses a momentary time sampling (MTS) procedure

 Important to have good operational definitions of
behaviors
 This contributes to good inter-rater reliability

 MTS is also important in making direct observation practical,
as well as accurate.
 The observer watches the target individual for a specified
period then marks the relevant behaviors.
 BASC-3 SOS MTS is set to be a total of 15 minutes.

Omnibus Rating Scales
 Measure a wide range of symptoms – examples:
 BASC-2 TRS and PRS
 The CBCL and TRF
 Sensitive to symptoms of both internalizing and
externalizing disorders
 Should always be used for initial screening and
assessment

Single-Domain Rating Scales
 Provide a more thorough assessment of a
specific domain or syndrome
 Resemble the omnibus scales in format, but
focus on a single disorder or behavioral
dimension
 Can be useful in supplementing more
comprehensive assessment techniques

Single-Domain Rating Scales
 Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)
 Designed to help identify autism
 Adequate reliability and validity evidence
 BASC Monitor for ADHD
 Designed for use with children suffering from ADHD
 Contains a teacher’s and parent’s rating scale
 Good reliability and validity evidence
 Pediatric Behavior Rating Scale
 Contains a teacher’s and parent’s rating scale
 Help identify early onset bipolar disorder
 Adequate initial reliability and validity evidence

 Adaptive Behavior Rating Scales
 Adaptive behavior
 Conceptual skills
 Practical skills
 Social skills
 Important in the assessment of individuals with
developmental and intellectual disabilities
 The Vineland Adaptive behavior Scales –
 Second Edition (Vineland-II)

Adult Behavior Rating Scales
 Clinical Assessment Scales for the Elderly (CASE)
 Omnibus behavior rating scale
 Completed by a caregiver with frequent contact with examinee
 Contains separate self-report scale for cognitively intact seniors to
complete
 Various clinical scales focus Axis I or clinical disorders
 Three validity scales are provided with the full-length scales.
 Screening versions of the CASE are also available.
 Typically completed in 30 minutes or less

The Brief Child and Family
Telephone
 Interview (BCFPI)
 Helps to reduce self-report problems
 Not a clinical interview but the scores are
highly predictive of childhood mental illness
 Activity: BCFPI discussion

Other Types of Assessment
 Continuous Performance Tests (CPTs)
 Specific type of behavioral test originally
designed to measure the following:
 Vigilance
 Attention
 And more generally, executive control
 Different CPT paradigms have been devised

CPT
 Typically, a CPT requires an examinee to view a
computer screen.
 Respond when a simple stimulus or sequence of
stimuli appear on the screen
 Inhibit responding at all other times
 Can be complex and use auditory presentation
 Highly sensitive to problems with self-regulatory
and executive control systems

CPT
 A recent CPT added working memory
assessment to the standard CPT paradigms.
 Tasks of Executive Control (TEC)
 Consists of a set of six different tasks
 Manipulates working memory as a
component of:
 Attention
 Vigilance
 Response inhibition

 Psychophysiological Assessments
 Typically involves recording physical changes in
the body
 Lie detector or polygraph is perhaps the best-
known example
 Other examples:
 Electroencephalographs (EEGs)
 Electromyographs

Assessing Behavior.pptx for children to learn

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