Assessment Protocols and Outcomes Evaluation
One of the central issues in all of child
development is what works? In order to determine
whether any specific intervention, service, program
or activity is effective, there must be some
measurement of functioning before and after the
"intervention." Traditionally the domain of
"research," assessment is, in fact, the core of any
effective clinical, educational or program activity.
Assessment protocols and outcomes evaluation are
crucial to determining and improving "what works."
Whether the focus of the assessment is the
individual child, the family or specific program
activities, systematic measurement is crucial. The
ChildTrauma Academy, has developed a variety of
individual and family assessment protocols that are
cost-effective. These assessment protocols
incorporate elements of evaluation used in
traditional clinical and educational settings. These
protocols are designed to allow outcome evaluations
for individual children in any given placement of
intervention. When assessment and outcomes
information from individual children is pooled,
effectiveness of various programs and interventions
can be determined.
Assessment Protocols for Children: For individual
children, the ChildTrauma Academy has developed a
multi-dimensional, cost-effective assessment process
to identify the strengths and vulnerabilities of
children and match educational, medical, mental
health and placement services to these specific
needs.
This assessment process for is designed to quantify
key life events, family and social characteristics,
and the physical, behavioral, emotional and
cognitive functioning of each child. This
multi-dimensional assessment involves both
traditional child and caregiver contact but includes
the use of standardized procedures and psychological
'instruments' that allow quantitative evaluation of
these domains.
Specific psychological instruments to be used vary
depending upon the age of the child. Very young
children are unable to provide self-reports of their
behavior; therefore caregiver reports are the source
of most information regarding their behavior.
Caregivers may also provide information about family
functioning. Additionally, instruments which assess
a child's ability to perform developmental tasks are
useful with young children, as these simply require
a child to perform behaviors or activities,
supplemented by caregiver reports regarding whether
a child has achieved developmental milestones
expected for one his/her age. With children 4 and
over, instruments that assess intelligence and
visual-motor development will be used to assess
these domains.
With children older than six, a host of standardized
instruments are integrated into the assessment. The
combination of measures can be modified to evaluate
the specific set of characteristics that are of most
interest in any given program or project (e.g.,
focus on cognitive/academic vs. emotional or
behavioral characteristics).
Specific Program Design: Specialized assessment
protocols and process can be developed to meet the
needs of a variety of projects, programs and
organizations. At present, protocols exist for
ChildTrauma Academy partnerships in a host of
public-private partnerships in traditional mental
health and medical settings, child protective
services and the juvenile justice systems.
Consultation with ChildTrauma Academy professional
staff and partners can help determine the specific
needs of a project and help design and implement the
assessment protocols. Key to effective assessment
and outcomes efforts in any given program are
complementing information management and
staff/client training activities that complement the
program's evaluation and intervention strategies.
Integration of assessment protocols, information
management and training are standard elements of a
ChildTrauma Academy program partnership.
Our
Training
Approach and Expertise
The ChildTrauma Academy professional staff
participate in a variety of the training and
teaching activities. This may range from the
Academy-sponsored multidisciplinary training
activities within the public systems to a
multiple-day continuing education programs.
Specialized training services have been developed to
target children, parents, caregivers, foster
parents, educators, case workers, mental and medical
health workers, judges and attorneys, law
enforcement and legislators, among others. The
topics include children and violence, recent
advances in brain development, post-traumatic stress
disorder, secondary trauma in educators and
case-workers, interviewing children, understanding
the child protective and juvenile justice system,
using technology in the child welfare systems,
exposure to violence and learning. A full list of
training and educational activities is available
from the ChildTrauma Academy.
History with Continuing Education and Training:
Since 1993, the ChildTrauma Academy staff have given
over 1000 presentations at local interdisciplinary
settings, national and international presentations
and training sessions, directly reaching over 75,000
professionals. These include presentations at: The
White House Conference on Early Childhood
Development, the 1997 National Governor's
Conference, the Keynote Address of the 1997
Convention for the National Committee for the
Prevention of Child Abuse, the Chicago Brain
Conference, the 1997 Presidential Summit, and in
testimony before the US Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on the importance of public policy
supporting early childhood development.
History with Distance Learning: The ChildTrauma
Academy has used various forms of distance learning
and clinical consultation. In 1993, in response to
thousands of requests for written materials (i.e.,
copies of papers, brochures, manuals, procedures),
The ChildTrauma Programs was among the first in its
field to harness the power of the Internet in order
to meet the educational needs of professionals and
lay people alike (www.ChildTrauma.org). The site
contains many of the papers, abstracts and chapters
written by members of the ChildTrauma group as well
as other educational materials, including video and
audio clips, about development, abuse and neglect of
children targeted for various audiences. Content on
ChildTrauma.org continues to grow today with new
research articles and educational materials posted
regularly. The site has received widespread acclaim
from caregivers, clinicians, teachers and other
professionals. The instant access to understandable
information about child development, brain
development, abuse and neglect of children assists
individuals all over the world as they serve
children. Presently, the ChildTrauma web-site gets
thousands of people visiting each week.
In 1999, the ChildTrauma Academy expanded its
Internet presence by launching a free Online
University (www.ChildTraumaAcademy.com). Again, the
first of its kind in the field, participants can
work through the self paced courses on child
maltreatment and brain development and communicate
with fellow "classmates" about the material and
assignments. Participants come from all fields,
perspectives and locals - both within the US and
well beyond.
Modern
technologies can greatly facilitate cost-effective
use of limited resources in our child protective,
public education, mental health, early childhood and
juvenile justice systems. ChildTrauma Academy
develops and conducts all of its assessment,
training and service delivery activities using
modern information management and communications
technologies.
In order to understand more completely the children
and families we serve - and learn from them -
systematic recording and storing of data must take
place. A central element of to this is the use of
relational databases. The ChildTrauma Academy, in
partnership with Digital Consulting and Software
Services (DCSS), has developed a set of relational
database models that are used in the various program
activities of ChildTrauma Academy and our
partnerships.
Computerized
information management system have been created to
track a child's progress across systems (i.e.,
educational, child protective, mental health,
juvenile justice) to facilitate thorough evaluation
and to reduce redundancy and the costly loss of
information as children move from system to system.
Computerized storage and management of data
facilitates analysis, evaluation, communication and
other critical elements required to refine and
evaluate various interventions.
As with the assessment, specialized information
management systems can be developed to meet the
needs of the project, program and organizations we
partner with. The ChildTrauma Academy information
management systems are developed to interface with
and complement the existing information management
and computerized databases systems of partnering
institutions and organizations.
