Instruments for Use With Young Children

Tests of infant ability have been developed in an attempt to measure developmental status of infants and young children. Such tests are primarily useful in describing current developmental status, with minimal relation­ship of these early childhood competencies to skills considered crucial during later developmental phases (80).

Research generally indicates that the younger the child, the less predictive intelligence tests are of later test scores and academic performance as the child ages (83,84). The assessment of young children typ­ically requires adaptation and expansion of existing tests to obtain reluctant and valid information. Factors to be considered are that the young child cannot be expected to perform on request and exceptional efforts may be necessary to elicit the degree of responsiveness and cooperation necessary to obtain sufficient and meaningful information. According to Stevenson and Lamb (85), an infant's response to a strange adult- influenced test performance and “sociably friendly” infants scored higher on measures of cognitive com­petence. Ulrey and Schnell (80) noted that preschool children have had minimal experience with test situa­tions, show minimal concern for responding correctly, and have limited experience with the feedback process that is contingent on being right. Usually, the process of merely asking young children to complete a task may not yield an accurate indication of their capabil­ities. It is, therefore, incumbent on the examiner to make a judgment about the extent to which the child's performance represents optimal functioning.

The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Develop­ment, 3rd Edition (Bayley-III) (86) can be used to measure cognitive and motor ability in children age 1-42 months. The cognitive scale measures memory, visual preference, visual acuity, problem solving, number concepts, language, and social development. The language scale measures social communication, semantics, morphology and syntax, prelanguage vocalizations, and comprehension. (Separate recep­tive and expressive language subtests are included.) The motor scale measures functional grasp and hand skills, object manipulation, visual-motor integration, head control, trunk control and locomotion, motor planning, and quality of movement. (Separate fine and gross motor subtests are included.) There is also a social-emotional scale (covered in the section on psy­chosocial assessment) and an adaptive behavior scale that is the same as the early childhood version of the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-II (87), which is covered in the section on adaptive behavior. The Bayley-III is considered the best available instrument for infant assessment (88).

The Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale (BNAS) (89) is administered to infants between 3 days and 4 weeks of age to generate an index of a newborn's competence. This scale includes 27 behavioral items and 20 elicited responses to assess. Test scores may be most useful when the test is repeated over the first several weeks of life, so that changes in scores can be examined to assess the infant's ability to respond to parenting and recover from the stress of birth. It is this recovery pattern that predicts later functioning in childhood more than a single score (90). Scores have also been used to teach parents how to provide sensi­tive and confident care to their infants, with small to moderate effects (91).