The Instruments

The Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) is a screening instrument that measures developmental performance in young children aged 1 month-5.5 years. Early childhood educators and healthcare professionals use ASQ to collect information from parents on children‘s development in five domains: communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem solving, and personal-social skills. ASQ-3 offers 21 parent/caregiver questionnaires that are used depending on the child's age.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional, Second Edition (ASQ®:SE-2) is a caregiver- or teacher-completed checklist that screens young children’s social-emotional development. It asks simple, practical questions about skills such as self-regulation, communication, interaction with others, and coping with everyday challenges. Forms for 48 and 60 months focus on behaviors common in the preschool years and are designed to be quick and easy for adults to complete.

The Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS) consists of 26 items usually divided into 4 subscales. Some researchers have conducted factor analyses on the 26 items and have found different subscales (e.g., Whitebook, Howes, & Phillips, 1989). Observers are asked to rate the extent to which 26 items are characteristic of the childcare provider whom they are observing. Items are scored on a 4‐point scale from (1) Not at all characteristic to (4) Very much characteristic of the child care provider. The measure usually contains the following subscales: Sensitivity (10 items), Harshness (8 items), Detachment (4 items), Permissiveness (4 items) “To rate the emotional tone, discipline style, and responsiveness of teachers and caregivers in a classroom. The items focus on the emotional tone and responsiveness of the caregiver’s interactions with children. The scale does not address issues of curriculum or other classroom management issues (such as grouping or flow of activities)” (U.S. Department of Education, 1997, p. 78).

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID) measures the development of infants and young children (aged 16 days-42 months). Conducted by trained examiners, BSID includes several developmental play tasks to assess cognitive, language, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive behavior development. BSID’s most recent fourth version was created in 2019.

The Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC), which is sold by Pearson, aims to measure adaptive behaviors, problem behaviors, and individual thoughts and feelings. It contains multiple evaluation forms: Teacher Rating Scales (TRS) and the Student Observation System (SOS) to be completed by a teacher; Parent Rating Scales (PRS), the Parenting Relationship Questionnaire (PRQ), and the Structured Developmental History (SDH) to be completed by a parent, and the Self-Report of Personality (SRP) to be completed by the student.

The BRIEF was developed in 2000 and assesses a student's executive functioning in the home and school. It includes parent response forms and teacher response forms. Designed to assess the abilities of a broad range of children and adolescents, the BRIEF is useful when working with children who have learning disabilities and attention disorders, traumatic brain injuries, lead exposure, pervasive developmental disorders, depression, and other developmental, neurological, psychiatric, and medical conditions. The BRIEF has eight clinical scales (Inhibit, Shift, Emotional Control, Initiate, Working Memory, Plan/Organize, Organization of Materials, Monitor) and is helpful in indicating attention disorders. The BRIEF has been adapted into 60 languages and for use from age 2-90. Recently, the BRIEF2 was created for ages 5-18. The BRIEF2 is shorter, but has no additional clinical items, allowing for consistency of data collection between the BRIEF and BRIEF2, and results can be translated from the BRIEF to the BRIEF2 to take advantage of new normative data. The BRIEF2 also has increased sensitivity for detecting ADHD and ASD.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) is a questionnaire used to assess children’s everyday behaviors related to executive functioning—skills like starting tasks, staying organized, managing emotions, and completing work. While it focuses on “executive function,” the BRIEF is best understood as a measure of behavioral regulation that reflects how well children apply these skills in real-life settings such as classrooms or at home.

The 18-item Classroom Climate Scale measures three components of students' or teachers' perceptions of their classroom climate: student-student relationships, student-teacher relationships, and awareness/reporting. Respondents are asked to indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with a series of declarative statements.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Child Caregiver Interaction Scale (CCIS), Revised Edition is an observation-based instrument created by Dr. Barbara Carl, Ph.D that assesses caregiver-child interaction. The 14 items are based upon the Developmentally Appropriate Practice position statements of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) and the National Health and Safety Performance Standards. The CCIS, which measures emotional, cognitive/physical, and social behaviors, is appropriate for children from birth to 5 years.

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System ™ (CLASS ™) is an observational instrument developed to assess instructional quality in PK-12 classrooms. It is a tool for analyzing the quality of teacher-student interactions in the classroom by capturing multiple dimensions of teaching that are linked to student achievement and development. It produces qualitative ratings of teacher performance on a scale from 1-7 across three broad domains: emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. As described by the authors: The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) is an observational instrument developed to assess classroom quality in preschool through third grade classrooms. The CLASS dimensions are based on observed interactions among teachers and students in classrooms. The dimensions were derived from a review of constructs assessed in classroom observation instruments used in childcare/Elementary school research, literature on effective teaching practices, focus groups, and extensive piloting. The Observational Record of Classroom Environments (ORCE, ECRN, NICHD, 1996) served as a foundation for the development of the CLASS. Subscore(s): Healthy Relationships, Effective Classroom Management, Instructional Support, Classroom Emotional Environment.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

This comprehensive kit contains resources to support the development of infants’ and toddlers’ social and emotional health. The screening and assessment tool focuses on identifying key social and emotional strengths and the planning resources provide caregivers and parents with research-based strategies to promote children’s resilience.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) is an assessment of classroom quality measuring environmental provisions and teacher-child interactions affecting the developmental needs of preschool- and kindergarten-aged children. The third edition of the assessment, ECERS-3, includes 35 items focusing on the following six domains: space and furnishings, personal care routines, language and literacy, learning activities, interaction, and program structure. ECERS may be used to evaluate inclusive and culturally diverse educational settings. 

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale®, 3rd ed. -- A thorough revision of the ECERS-R™, designed to assess group programs for preschool-kindergarten aged children, from 3 through 5 years of age.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

An individual play-based assessment to measure a child’s developmental needs, and pre-literacy skills.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

These 6 items were used along with social skills and behavior items adapted from the Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS) by Gresham and Elliot (1990) in the ECLS-K: 2010-2011.

Indicators of Individual Growth and Development for Infants and Toddlers (IGDI) measure development outcomes for children between 6 and 42 months. IGDI assessments are evaluations of 6-minute play sessions with the child and require the use of a set of toys in addition to administration materials. IGDI assessments can be conducted live during the play session, based on a video recording of the play session, or by observing the play session virtually.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) measures the environmental quality of childcare programs for children up to 30 months old. The instrument was originally developed in 1990 and is now offered in a revised version (Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised, ITERS-R). The 39 items of ITERS-R focus on the following seven domains: space and furnishings, personal care routines, listening and talking, activities, interaction, program structure, and parents and staff. ITERS-R is suitable for inclusive and culturally diverse settings.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) is a parent-focused instrument measuring the communicative development of children aged 8-37 months. CDI allows professionals to screen and develop prognoses for language delays by tapping into parents‘ knowledge of their children‘s language skills, starting from early comprehension to early vocabulary and grammar expansion.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

Play Interaction is an indication of children’s play strengths and includes such behaviors as comforting and helping other children, showing creativity in play, and encouraging others to join play. Play Disruption describes aggressive, antisocial behaviors that interfere with on-going peer play interactions. Play Disconnection reflects withdrawn behavior and nonparticipation in peer play. "Play is an important vehicle for children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development, as well as a reflection of their development” (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997 p. 6). Derives information on young children’s social competence, in context (Fantuzzo, Sutton‐Smith, Coolahan, Manz, Canning, & Debnam, 1995; McWayne, Sekino, Hampton, & Fantuzzo, 2002).

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Playground Observation of Peer Engagement (POPE) is an observation-based instrument measuring children‘s engagement in activities and with peers in naturalistic environments. It focuses on the time children spend in various engagement states and the frequency of their social engagement states and behaviors (games and conversations, parallel play, observing others, and solitary play). 

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales–Second Edition (PKBS-2) is a behavior rating scale designed to assess young children’s social skills and problem behaviors. It provides a balanced view of both positive and challenging behaviors, making it useful for understanding children’s overall social-emotional development in early learning settings.

The Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA) is a direct assessment designed to measure young children’s ability to manage their emotions, attention, and behavior in structured settings. It uses a short series of hands-on tasks and assessor observations to capture different aspects of self-regulation in preschool-aged children. The PSRA includes activities that assess impulse control, attention, and executive functioning—skills that help children follow directions, stay focused, and control their actions.

Several observational tasks that show good value as denoting children’s ability to regulate emotions have been identified by Kochanska and colleagues. Radiah Smith‐Donald and Cybele Raver are now piloting a very clear, detailed use of such tasks, with specific measurement of the child’s performance both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

Three higher‐order temperament factors pertinent to the assessment of emotional expressiveness and regulation have been isolated: (a) negative affectivity, (b) surgency; and (c) effortful control (Rothbart et al, 1994). Taken together, they comprise a child's constitutional, individual pattern of self‐regulation and reactivity, relatively enduring biological predispositions that are influenced over time by maturation and experience. Negative affectivity items involve discomfort experienced in over‐stimulating situations, frustration, anger, and inability to soothe oneself, fearfulness, and sadness. The Surgency dimension includes active, approach, pleasure, and smiling scales. Use of Rothbart Temperament Questionnaires can add to knowledge of children’s expressiveness across many everyday contexts. Many children high on the temperament dimension of negative affectivity are easily angered in many situations. Others high on this dimension are anxious, fearful in new situations, and easily saddened. Thus, this factor can be divided into “externalizing negative emotions” and “internalizing negative emotions.” Effortful control, also assessed by the CBQ, is associated with sensitivity to the emotional experiences of peers, which can lead to empathic and other prosocial responses, as well as to inhibition of aggressive impulses (Kochanska, 1993; Rothbart et al., 1994). More specifically, regulatory abilities in attention, in particular the ability to focus and shift attention voluntarily, and the ability to disengage attention from one's own perspective to attend to another's, are hallmarks of prosocial development (Kochanska, 1993). Children higher on the effortful control dimension may be seen by teachers, observers, and peers alike as more socially competent. Effortful control encompasses scales measuring inhibitory control; maintenance of attentional focus during tasks; pleasure experienced during low intensity situations (e.g., looking at picture books); and perceptual sensitivity and awareness of external cues. Thus, the CBQ’s scales related to emotion regulation, or internally consistent abbreviations thereof, could be useful.

For regulation, four scales are used, as follows: (a) attention focusing (“will move from one task to another without completing them” (reversed); (b) attention shifting (“can easily shift from one activity to another”; (c) inhibition control (e.g., “can lower her voice when asked to do so; and (e) impulsivity (“rushes into new situations”).

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Social Competence and Behavioral Evaluation - 30 (SCBE-30) is a short version of an 80 item Likert measure for parents and teachers to assess  social-emotional competence, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors in preschool children. It was formerly sold by WPS Publishing but no longer is. It has been translated into many languages and is used in cross-national comparisons. Subscore(s): Social Competence, Anger-Aggression, Anxiety-Withdrawal

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a widely used checklist that includes questions about conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behavior. The checklist style rating form is easy to complete with only about 5 items per subscale, and can be completed by parents or teachers. Although many studies use this or the CBCL (Achenbach Child Behavior Check List), the SDQ is generally more reliable for low-risk populations.

The Teacher–Child Rating Scale (T-CRS) is a brief, teacher-completed checklist that assesses children’s social-emotional and behavioral adjustment in school. It focuses on skills that support learning and positive classroom participation, such as attention, behavior regulation, and peer social skills. The current version, T-CRS 3.1, is designed for students from pre-K through grade 5 and can be completed in a few minutes.

Teachers were asked to complete one for each student in their class as a way to identify high-risk children. Teachers were asked to describe, among other things, whether the child completed assignments, was friendly, broke rules, was disobedient, fought, or yelled at others. Teachers used a Likert scale of 0 to 5, with responses including almost never (0), rarely (1), sometimes (2), often (3), very often (4), and almost always (5). The original measure was 16 items, later revised by discarding two and adding 21 more. The items are aggregated into four subscales (Overt Aggression Subscale, Oppositional Subscale, Covert Antisocial Subscale, Authority Acceptance Subscale). For those looking for a scale with less cost and time to administer than the structured interview session, the TOCA-C was been developed in 2009. The TOCA-Checklist is a written, checklist-based version of the TOCA-R.  Subscore(s): Aggression, Authority, Opposition

Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.

The Teacher Observation of Classroom Adaptation–Checklist (TOCA-C) is a teacher-completed checklist used to assess students’ classroom behavior and social functioning. It is a streamlined version of the original Teacher Observation of Classroom Adaptation (TOCA) instrument developed by Kellam et al. (1975). The checklist format makes it easier and faster to administer, while still capturing behaviors that influence students’ academic success and relationships with peers and teachers.