An overview of the SEAM ™ A Social Emotional Assessment / Evaluation Measure

1. An overview of the SEAM™A Social Emotional Assessment / Evaluation Measure for Infants, Toddlers & Preschoolers

2. What is the SEAM? • Social Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure • Programmatic tool for use with children and their adults/caregivers to foster positive social emotional development • Curriculum-based assessment

3. SEAM™ Purpose • Assists practitioners in • prevention and early identification of social emotional difficulties and behavior disorders • development of functional, meaningful, measurable, high-quality goals and intervention content for children and caregivers • optimizing positive parent-child interactions in the first years of life.

4. An Activity-Based Approach to Developing Young Children's Social Emotional Competence • Jane Squires & Diane Bricker, authors • Published by Paul Brookes Publishing (2007) • Includes experimental editions of • Infant and Toddler SEAM™, professional and caregiver versions • Environmental Screening Questionnaire (ESQ™) • Forms may be copied

5. SEAM Research: Year 1 • Collect SEAM reliability and validity data • 4 counties in OR and PA • 160 infants and toddlers in Part C programs • 80 typically developing infants and toddlers • Grant Number: R324070255

6. Research: Parent Participation • Parents complete the following: • Consent form • Demographic form • Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) • SEAM Infant or Toddler • interview format, 45-60 minutes • SEAM Caregiver Utility Survey

7. Research: Parent Incentives • Participating parents receive choice of gift card: Borders, Starbucks, or Target • $15 for children with disabilities • $10 for typically developing children

8. Research: Practitioners • Practitioners complete the following: • Consent form • Demographics form • SEAM Practitioner Utility Survey • Practitioners receive $25 gift card for: • Participating in 2-hour SEAM Training • Completing 3 Child SEAMs

9. SEAM™ User Criterion The SEAM assessment is designed for: • programs that focus on children who are environmentally at risk, or children who have disabilities, or both • personnel who do not have extensive mental health preparation

10. Social Emotional Development • Children’s reactions and responses that produce: • satisfying interactions between the individual and his or her social world, • comfortable self-images and perceptions by others, and • matching and modulation of emotional and social responses to internal and external events.

11. Why Assess Social Emotional Development? • Part C of IDEA requires assessment of the social emotional area and provision of services if necessary • Program performance standards may mandate that social emotional development be addressed • Links exist between early social emotional behaviors and later social emotional outcomes

12. Social Emotional (SE) Research • Links exist between earliest emotional development and later social behavior (Cicchetti & Cohen, 1995a, 1995b; Reynolds et al., 2001). • Behaviors, even in infancy, signal the need for intervention (DeGangi, 1991; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). • Links exist between early risk factors, poor outcomes, and violence (Conroy & Brown, 2004). • By third grade, programs for children with antisocial behavior are mostly ineffective (Greenberg et al., 2003; Walker, 2004).

13. Activity Based Intervention (ABI) • Conceptual framework underlying SEAM • Understands development as • Transactional (Sameroff & Chandler, 1975) • Organizational (Cichetti, Ganiban, & Barnett, 1991)

14. ABI-SE Approach • Transactional: • The ongoing interaction between children and their daily environment produces developmental change • Organizational: • The ongoing interaction between children and their daily environment produces qualitative reorganizations in development over time

15. ABI-SE Approach Other factors impacting development: • Child characteristics (genetic, biological, physiological) • Environmental context (social and physical) • Goodness of fit between child’s characteristics and environment • Risk/protective factors

16. Environment Risk/Protective Factors Toddler Infant Goodness of Fit ABI-SE Environment Successive Qualitative Reorganizations

17. Screening Assessment Goal Development Intervention Evaluation The Linked System Framework

18. Screen for social emotional problems or potential problems Assess to determine social emotional competence Develop and select social emotional goals Intervene using daily activities Evaluate progress toward selected goals ABI-SE & the Linked System Screening Assessment Goal Development Intervention Evaluation

19. Social Emotional Domain • Social Emotional Development Screening • Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ:SE™) • Identifies children with potential social emotional problems • Social Emotional Curriculum-Based Assessment • SEAM • Produces outcomes to assist in development of intervention goals and content for children who show signs of SE problems or potential problems

20. SEAM™ Components • Child Benchmarks & Assessment Items • Adult/Caregiver Benchmarks & Assessment Items

21. SEAM Child • Comprehensive SE assessment • Age ranges: • Infants (3-18 months) • Toddlers (18-36 months) • Preschools (36-63 months) • Completed by caregiver or by professional through interview with caregiver • Professional Version includes age intervals for items

22. INFANTS 10 Benchmarks TODDLERS 10 Benchmarks SEAM: Child Benchmarks

23. SEAM Infant

24. SEAM Infant

25. SEAM Toddler

26. SEAM Toddler

27. INFANTS 35 Assessment Items TODDLERS 35 Assessment Items SEAM: Child Assessment Items

28. SEAM: Child Assessment Items • Allow caregiver to: • rate child’s performance on developmental items • indicate whether item is a concern • select item as intervention goal

29. SEAM Infant

30. Sample SEAM Assessment ItemInfant (for developmental range 3-18 months) X X X

31. SEAM Scoring • Practitioners can score SEAM to compare child performance over time • Most of the Time = 2 • Sometimes = 1 • Not Yet = 0

32. SEAM Assessment Process • Prepare with the caregiver for the SEAM assessment process • Complete the SEAM assessment • Review results

33. Preparing with the Caregiver • Build relationship with caregiver over time • Arrange time and place that is comfortable for the caregiver • Explain assessment purpose and procedures • Tailor caregiver participation to match individual needs and desires • Explain SEAM interval’s developmental range and omit questions developmentally irrelevant or culturally inappropriate

34. The SEAM Child and SEAM Adult can be completed by caregiver Interview format is recommended Include family members / friends if desired Practitioner may need to observe home and child-caregiver interactions prior to assisting with assessment or afterwards to verify accuracy Completing SEAM Assessment

35. Reviewing the Results • Review information with the caregiver • Clarify discrepancies between professional’s perception and caregiver’s perceptions • Summarize information for use during goal development process • Goal Development and Intervention Plan (chapter 7)

36. SEAM Adult/Caregiver • Assessment items address adult knowledge and behaviors that foster social emotional development in children • Assessment identifies areas where caregivers / parents need support and resources in order to provide a safe and responsive environment for their children.

37. SEAM Adult/Caregiver • Uses caregiver-friendly language • Allows caregivers to: • rate their understanding of, and ability to foster their child’s development in, several developmental areas • indicate whether they need more information about an assessment item • select assessment items that are “focus areas” or areas of concern

38. Adult/Caregiver Benchmarks

39. Sample SEAM Adult / Caregiver Assessment ItemInfant (for developmental rage 3-18 months) X X

40. Adult/Caregiver Considerations • Check the box if the caregiver needs resources or more information from a professional. • Check the “Focus Area” triangle next to an item if the caregiver(s) would like to target the content addressed in the item as an intervention goal. • Consider cultural appropriateness of each item and omit items that caregivers may find intrusive, disrespectful, or inappropriate.

41. Summary Form • Includes child’s (C) name and adult / caregiver’s (A) name • Administration date • Record of observations to assist in the development of goals and objectives. • Strength • Concern/continue monitoring • Identified as goal

42. SEAM Summary Form

43. Functional Behavioral Assessment • A systematic process for developing hypotheses about factors that contribute to the occurrence and maintenance of problem behaviors • Assists in developing effective, function-based interventions and supports for decreasing problem behavior and increasing prosocial behaviors

44. FBA Features or Goals • Attending to environmental context and adult behavior • Determining the “purpose” or function of the problem behavior • Teaching appropriate behaviors

45. FBA / BSP Process • Define the problem behavior • Develop a hypothesis statement: • what the behavior is, • when it’s most likely to occur and • what usually takes place afterward • Identify the hypothesized purpose or function of the behavior • Collect observational data • Develop intervention strategies

46. Early Childhood Functional Assessment Interview

47. Early Childhood Functional Assessment Interview

48. 1: Define Problem Behavior • Use Early Childhood Functional Assessment Interview Form • Use terms that are observable and measurable • e.g. “Hitting” rather than “aggressive” • Consider various dimensions of the behavior • Frequency --Latency • Duration --Function or focus • Intensity

49. Early Childhood Functional Assessment Interview Part A Child strengths (identify at least three strengths and contributions that the child brings to school and/or home): ___________________________________________________________ Identify the problem behavior(s): • Withdrawn  Physically aggressive  Disruptive  Steals • Unresponsive  Verbally inappropriate  Does not do work • Tantrums  Engages in self-injury  Verbally harassing • Is noncompliant/Does not follow directions • Other_________________________________________________ What does the problem behavior look like?______________ What do you do now when problem behavior occurs/_______

50. Early Childhood Functional Assessment Interview Part B