In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, PK-12 school buildings across the United States closed and educators quickly pivoted to remote and continuous learning opportunities to protect students and society as a whole from the deadly coronavirus. As educational leaders navigate the complexities for providing instruction during the 2020-2021 academic…

In this program description, the authors describe outcomes of a 2-year project influencing programmatic changes to screening/assessment practices and increased collaboration with Child Welfare (CW) in an early intervention (EI) program. The EI professionals reviewed how they assessed children who have been abused/neglected. Based on their…

The assessment of psychosocial strengths in children and adolescents has predominately focused on the measurement of single traits and constructs, such as grit (Christopoulou, Lakioti, Pezirkianidis, Karakasidou, & Stalikas, 2018), optimism (Oberle, Guhn, Gadermann, Thomson, & Schonert-Reichl, 2018), hope (Pedrotti, 2018), and gratitude…

This report reviews the "Social Skills Improvement System Social-Emotional Learning Edition" (SSIS SEL; Gresham & Elliott, 2017), a multicomponent rating scale that includes a criterion and norm-referenced measure of social-emotional and academic functioning--based on a reformulation of the "Social Skills Improvement…

"Psychoeducational Assessment of Preschool Children," Fifth Edition, provides academics and school-based practitioners such as psychologists, speech-language pathologists, and social workers with an up-to-date guide to the assessment of young children. Long recognized as the standard text and reference in its field, this comprehensive,…

Social-emotional development, psychosocial functioning, and relational experiences have been shown to impact academic achievement and psychological well-being. Social skills have been identified as being particularly critical in promoting mental health and life-long success. Children with well-developed social skills (e.g., sharing, being…

Accurate identification of young children at risk for mental health problems is a key step in establishing early childhood preventive intervention programs. Without psychometrically valid identification procedures, children in need of early intervention may not be identified and may not receive appropriate care. This article provides a review of…

Universal screening enables service providers and families to quickly identify difficulties and implement strategies that are likely to lessen the probability of longterm negative outcomes including severe persistent challenging behaviors. The practice of universal screening is in line with the prevention approach that is the foundation of the…

The "Handbook of Youth Prevention Science" describes current research and practice in mental health preventive interventions for youth. Traditional prevention research focused on preventing specific disorders, e.g. substance abuse, conduct disorders, or criminality. This produced "silos" of isolated knowledge about the…

Aserts that it is unclear how the Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional ratings link to other critical child and family risk factors. Identifies questions regarding how well individual dimensions of social behavior are measured and concerns about the partial overlap between competent and problem behavior. Expresses concerns about the…

This manual presents guidelines for users of the Child Development Assessment Form (CDAF) -- a 90 item checklist of behaviors characteristic of children from birth to 3 years of age. The CDAF is designed to help parents and teachers identify skills and behaviors that the child has developed and plan learning experiences that facilitate growth. The…

This article discusses using "PEPSI", a screening and programming method that evaluates the physical, emotional, philosophical, social, and intellectual levels of development in children with disabilities. The steps in the PEPSI screening process are described and a case study is provided. A chart depicting indicators in teaching respect for self…

Noting that reliable and valid measures of competence are essential for preschool screening, diagnostic, and research purposes, this review for practitioners and researchers presents an inventory and evaluation of standardized measuring instruments designed for assessing social and emotional competence in preschool children. A total of 39…

The directory includes descriptions of over 130 developmental screening instruments for preschool and elementary aged children. The first section provides background regarding the development and use of screening programs, including the legal and social implications of screening. The second section discusses the criteria (administration,…

This article examines two programs chosen by the Early Head Start National Resource Center (EHSNRC) Pathways to Prevention (PTP) initiative to participate in a study of their mental health services. Both Wyoming's The Learning Center and Colorado's Developmental Opportunities found that working with the PTP mental health consultant catalyzed…