7 Family-friendly OT Assessments for Early Intervention
Best practice in Early Intervention entails a family-focused approach to intervention. Does your current assessment process align with this? Read this blog post to learn about 7 family-friendly OT assessments that allow you to partner with families right from the start. The best part…all of these assessments are teletherapy-compatible!
Let me share a story that changed how I view Early Intervention assessments.
Eleven years ago, I found myself on the other side of the table when my son needed an Early Intervention evaluation for speech delays. Even as a pediatric Occupational Therapist with 12 years of experience, I was totally caught off guard by what happened next.
You know that pit in your stomach before a big evaluation? Yeah, I had that - even though I honestly didn't think he'd qualify.
Plot twist: not only did he qualify, but the team found delays in ALL areas of development. They recommended OT, Speech, AND PT.
Talk about a gut punch!
Here I was, an experienced pediatric OT, completely blindsided by my own child's needs. The questions flooded my mind:
"Am I a bad therapist for missing this?”
“Am I a bad parent for missing this?”
“Is he really that delayed? “
“Does he actually need all these services?"
Looking back on those early years, I'm grateful for the services and the wonderful therapists who worked with us. But, I can't help thinking there could have been a better way - one that didn't leave parents (like me and my husband) feeling so overwhelmed and anxious.
Since having adopted a parent coaching model of service delivery more than 10 years ago, I’m continuously striving to accomplish this for families and also for the therapists I mentor.
Some families have concerns about their child beforehand and some may have been recommended to Early Intervention by their medical teams.
No matter what the referral reason, it can feel overwhelming and intimidating to have a team of professionals scrutinizing your child’s every move and behavior.
But this process doesn’t have to be anxiety-producing…and selecting the right assessment tool can help to lessen this burden and partner with the families right from the start.
After all, assessment shouldn’t be just about identifying children’s delays in development….it should be about identifying a child’s and family’s strengths, culture, priorities, and areas of support that are important to that family.
4 key points to include in your Early Intervention Assessments
The most valuable assessments are built on a foundation of trust, curiosity, and partnership with the child's family.
By honoring their unique story, celebrating their strengths, and aligning with their cultural values and priorities, we unlock valuable insights to support the child's authentic development.
There are a few key points to consider when completing your Early Intervention assessments:
Center the family's perspective and experience, not just the child's. Acknowledge their unique story.
Be curious and actively listen to understand the family's strengths, culture, values, and concerns.
Frame and verbalize to families that the assessment process is a true partnership, where the family's expertise in their child is honored.
Be explicit about how this holistic, family-centered approach leads to more meaningful, "authentic" insights that can best support the child.
The core message is that effective assessment goes beyond just testing the child - it requires deeply understanding and collaborating with the family as equal partners.
This helps ensure the assessment aligns with the family's priorities and cultural context.
7 Family-friendly Early Intervention Assessment tools
I know many of you must use a standardized tool as part of your Early Intervention evaluations. In that case, Here are 7 of my favorite assessments that help empower our families as the experts in their child and involve them in the therapy process from the get-go!
1. Developmental Assessment of Young Children (DAYC-2)
Age Range: Birth to 5
Skills assessed: All 5 domains: Motor, Cognitive, Social-emotional, Adaptive, Communication
Format: Norm-referenced. Observation, Parent interview, direct assessment. Hand scoring.
Administration time: 10-20 minutes each domain
Where to purchase: Pearson
Cost: Kits from $375
2. Sensory Processing Measure-Preschool (SPM-P)
Age Range: 2-5 years old
Skills assessed: Sensory Processing
Format: Parent/teacher rating scale. Norm-referenced. Online forms, scoring and computerized reports available through WPS.
Administration time: 15-20 minutes
Where to purchase: WPS
Cost: Kits from $196
3. Sensory profile 2: Infant/toddler/child
Age Range: Infant-birth-6months; Toddler-7-35 months; Child-3-14.11 years
Skills assessed: Sensory processing
Format: Parent/teacher rating scale. Norm-referenced. Online forms, scoring and computerized reports available through WPS.
Administration time: 5-20 minutes
Where to purchase: WPS
Cost: Kits from $299
4. Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP)
Age Range: 0-3 years old; HELP 3-6-year-olds
Skills assessed: Cognitive, Language, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Social-Emotional, and Self-Help.
Format: Family-centered curriculum-based assessment. Not standardized. Parent/therapist interview and observations. Hand scoring.
Administration time: 5-10 minutes for each domain.
Where to purchase: Vort
Cost: Kits from $64.95 for the manual; $3.50 per checklist form
5. The Roll Evaluation of Activities of Life
Age Range: 2.0-18.11
Skills assessed: ADLs and IADLs
Format: 4 point Likert scale. Standardized. Hand scoring.
Administration time: 15-20 minutes for each test
Where to purchase: Pearson
Cost: Kits from $112
6. The Developmental Profile (DP-4)
Age Range: birth-21 years
Skills assessed: All five domains: Cognitive, communication, motor, social-emotional and adaptive.
Format: Standardized; parent interview, caregiver checklist, teacher checklist, clinician rating. Online or printed versions available.
Administration time: 20-40 minutes
Where to purchase: WPS
Cost: Kits from $399
7. Transdisciplinary Play Based Assessment, 2nd Ed (TPBA-2)
Age Range: birth to 6 years
Skills assessed: sensorimotor, emotional and social, communication, and cognitive
Format: Play-based assessment. Child-motivated play. Family is involved in the process. Strengths-based. Hand written report based on observations. Training available through Brookes.
Administration time: 60-90 minutes
Where to purchase: Brookes
Cost: 54.95
By no means is this meant to be an exhaustive list of Early Intervention standardized tools, just a few that I feel fit well with the parent coaching service delivery model in Early Intervention.
Did your favorite assessment make the list? Please share below if there are others that you’d like to see added to this list.
Want to learn more about performing Early Intervention Assessments?
Join The Therapy Village today!
The Therapy Village, online membership for Early Intervention Therapists, is the only place where you’ll have on-demand access to a library of EI on-demand trainings, parent handouts, and access to a supportive multidisciplinary community to answer all your burning Early Intervention questions.
Whether you want to become better at assessment, documenting, parent coaching, clinical reasoning, or add new intervention tools to your OT toolbox, The Therapy Village has something for your Early Intervention practice!
Grow your confidence as an Early Interventionist…Click here for more information and to join today!
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