Child Measures

Abstract

The following section brings together measures of children's social skills from all possible domains. Some of the most popular measures of children's social skills are reports by others, such as parents, teachers, and peers. For information on the self-perception of social skills, self-report instruments may be administered. As this review demonstrates, these types of measures are often standardized and convenient to administer and score. Their formats include rating scales, questionnaires, interviews, and analogue observations. Both the clinician and researcher will find utility in the measures reviewed. Not all possible methodologies are reviewed in the child measures section. Specifically, direct observation and sociometric procedures are not reviewed as they are best described as a collection of procedures that can be adjusted to meet the demands of the clinician or researcher. Although more difficult to implement than questionnaires, these procedures offer particularly strong external validity and are thus important to the assessment of social skills. For example, naturalistic observation may be considered the exemplary standard against which other forms of assessment are compared (Merrell, 2001). Sociometric procedures can be used as part of an assessment to identify children in need of social skill interventions and provide a method to assess the outcomes of such interventions (Foster, Inderbitzen, & Nangle, 1993). These methods are flexible and idiographic, allowing for their use in a variety of environments and with various populations. The same characteristics that make these methods appropriate for diverse needs, however, also make the procedures difficult to review. Practitioners and researchers are advised to consider their unique needs in assessment and consult the research for methods that may fit these needs. The following review is offered for guidance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)