Abstract
Assessment of developmentally disabled infants and preschoolers is a vital yet challenging task. Throughout the development of disabled children, assessments are conducted across numerous skill domains to aid in the multiple decisions that face affected parents and professionals. However, because of the great variation in the type, degree, and display of developmental disabilities, these children can seemingly defy standardized assessment. Nonetheless, professionals from many disciplines are repeatedly confronted with decisions, if not dilemmas, regarding how best is the selection of instruments for assessment. Three major types of considerations are involved in selecting an instrument: practical considerations, psychometric considerations and consideration of the assessment objectives. This chapter will discuss each of these, with the greatest emphasis placed on assessment objectives. The goal is to articulate a model or strategy for making decisions regarding the selection of assessment instruments for developmentally disabled children. The resulting model represents an attempt to integrate these three major types of considerations. Particular reference will be made to the assessment of cognitive abilities because of the authors’ familiarity with this area; however, it is our belief that the discussion is applicable to the assessment of other abilities as well.
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© 1988 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Hubert, N.C., Wallander, J.L. (1988). Instrument Selection. In: Wachs, T.D., Sheehan, R. (eds) Assessment of Young Developmentally Disabled Children. Perspectives in Developmental Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9306-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9306-2_3
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