Four Tips for Multi-Team Early Childhood Assessments

School psychologists and physicians are often asked to complete multi-team evaluations for early childhood and pre-kindergarten children. Here are four tips that can help professionals involved in multi-team early childhood assessments.

Tip One: A multi-team evaluation can take many forms. Some school districts have the child go to different clinics and are evaluated or interviewed by the school psychologist, speech therapist, school nurse, special education teacher, general education teacher, and other professionals, if necessary. individually (such as occupational therapist, physical therapist). therapist or vision and hearing specialist). The doctors then consult with each other after the family leaves the assessment offices. Other school districts may use a more game-based evaluation system in which the child plays with other children and all the doctors observe the child at the same time. Physicians can quickly share information and determine if the child is still in the evaluation and does not need further evaluation, an evaluation, or a full evaluation.

Tip two: seek outside help if necessary. Some doctors just need more information than they get from a single evaluation. It may be necessary to obtain parental consent to contact outside agencies or organizations. This may include obtaining additional medical information, contacting preschool or daycare programs the child attends, and social service or foster care agencies to get a better picture of the child. School psychologists and physicians may need to make additional observations of the child as he or she interacts with same-age peers in preschool. This outside assistance can help get a bigger picture of what the child looks like in different settings and situations.

Tip Three: Seek input from parents or guardians in evaluating multiple teams. Parents or guardians often know their young children best, so it makes practical sense to collect as much information as possible from parents and caregivers. It is important to note that guardians may also have different perspectives on the child. The clinician or school psychologist may find factors similar to those reported by a parent or guardian, but the physician may also note differences when reporting the results. Parents or guardians may not see the child in the same way, so doctors may have to share some unique or overlooked characteristics of the child in the evaluation process.

Tip four: write recommendations to reflect possible changes in the child. Doctors and school psychologists may want to consider broad recommendations to understand that the child may be making changes. Sometimes recommendations may include areas of the assessment where the child was unable to complete the task. It could be that the child needs more practice to fully master a task or needs to have instructions repeated to fully understand how to do an activity. There may also be inconsistencies in the characteristics the child exhibits, such as limited eye contact that may need to be monitored or observed more while the child attends preschool or participates in play activities.