Authors:
Wayne Hresko, Shirley Miguel, Rita Sherbenou, and Steve Burton

Publisher:
Pro-ed
(800) 897-3202
www.proedinc.com/index.html

Initial Material Cost:
Complete DOCS Kit: $129 (includes Examiner’s Manual, 25 Cumulative Profile/Record Forms, 25 Developmental Checklist Profile/Record Forms, 25 Adjustment Behavior Checklist Profile/Record Forms, and 25 Parent Stress and Support Checklist Profile/Record Forms)

Representativeness of Norming Sample:
DOCS was normed on more than 1,400 children ages birth through 6 years from more than 30 states. Although a random sampling procedure was not used, characteristics of the normative group approximate those for the 1990 U.S. Census data relative to gender, geographic region, race/ethnicity, and urban/rural residence. The tests were conducted between November 1989 and December 1992.

Languages:
English

Type of Assessment:
Parent or caregiver report

Age Range and Administration Interval:
Birth to 6 years

Personnel, Training, Administration, and Scoring Requirements:
Examiners should have some training in administering and interpreting assessment instruments. The instrument can be completed by a parent with a fourth grade reading level. It takes 30 minutes to complete and 15 to 20 minutes to score all three checklists.

Summary
Initial Material Cost: 2 ($100 to $200)
Reliability: 3 (.65 or higher)
Validity: 2 (about half of the coefficients were |.5; about half were.5)
Norming Sample Characteristics: 2 (not nationally representative)
Ease of Administration and Scoring: 3 (self-administered and scored by a trained individual)

Description: The Developmental Observation Checklist System (DOCS) is a three-part instrument to assess the development of very young children, their ability to adjust to their environment, and the level of stress and support in their environment. Part I uses the Developmental Checklist (DC), a parent report questionnaire, to assess the child’s general development in the areas of cognition, language, social, and motor domains. It is answered in a yes/no format. Part II uses the Adjustment Behavior Checklist (ABC) to screen for any problematic behaviors in the child’s ability to adapt to his/her environment. Part III uses the Parental Stress and Support Checklist (PSSC) to identify family stress regarding the child and support used to mediate the stressors. Both the ABC and the PSSC are scored on a 4-point Likert-type scale.

Uses of Information: The DOCS is used to (1) identify infants and children with developmental delays or deficits in cognitive, language, social, and motor abilities; (2) assess adjustment behavior; (3) determine levels of familial stress and support; (4) facilitate the proper professional referral for the child; (5) serve as a measurement device in research studies, (6) give direction to instructional practice, and (7) document educational progress.

Reliability: (1) Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach alphas): the alphas for age groups between birth and 3 years old were in the mid to high .90s for the DC components, in the .80s for the ABC, and in the low to mid .90s for the PSSC. (2) Test-retest reliability (with a 14- to 21-day interval): coefficients for children ages 2 to 3 ranged from .85 to .91 for the DC component and overall checklists and were .94 and .89 for the ABC and PSSC, respectively. (3) Inter-rater reliability: Parent to caregiver standard score reliability coefficients on the DC component and overall ranged from .91 to .94.

Validity: (1) Concurrent validity: The DC component quotient scores correlation with the Bayley Scale for Infant Development, Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT), Denver Developmental Screening Test-Revised, McCarthy, Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Test (REEL), Test of Early Language Development-2 (TELD-2), Stanford Binet (SB-4th), Slosson Intelligence Test-Revised (SIT-R), Test of Early Socioemotional Development (TOESD), and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale ranged from .35 (Developmental Language Quotient, Developmental Cognition Quotient, and Developmental Cognition Quotient with the McCarthy) to .83 (Developmental Language Quotient with the TELD-2). The correlation of DC component quotient scores with the Parental Stress Inventory (PSI) ranged from -.72 to -.38. The correlations of the ABC and PSSC with the TOESD were .65 and .47, respectively. For the Vineland, the correlations with the ABC and the PSSC were .69 and .51, respectively. The correlations of the ABC and PSSC with the PSI were -.38 and -.72, respectively. The DOCS was also able to differentiate between children with normal development and those with developmental challenges. These validity tests were performed on children between the ages of 3 and 6. (2) Predictive validity: no information available.

Method of Scoring: To score the DC, the examiner needs to find the child’s basal and ceiling points. The basal is established when the parent or caregiver marks “Yes” for five items in a row, and the ceiling is established when the parent or caregiver marks “No” for five items in a row. The DC score is the sum of all of the items below the basal (including the five basal items) and the number of “Yes” responses above the basal and below the ceiling. The ABC and the PSSC have no basals or ceilings. Checkmarks in each column are weighted according to their placement in the scale (responses are assigned a number between 1 and 4) and multiplied by a factor indicated on the response sheet. To compute a raw score for each checklist, the correct responses are summed. Using tables in the manual, the DC component checklist raw scores can be converted into percentiles, standard scores, quotients (a distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15), normal curve equivalents, and age-equivalents (the child’s performance age). The manual also has tables to convert the ABC and PSSC raw scores into percentiles and quotients.

Interpretability: The manual provides guidelines for interpreting DOCS scores, as well as cautions about their limitations. In general, while low DOCS scores may indicate the presence of developmental or environmental issues, they do not provide information on the sources and nature of the issues. The examiner is advised to always consider other sources of information, but especially when the assessment has practical implications for the child.

Training Support: None

Adaptations/Special Instructions for Individuals with Disabilities: Instructions are given for how to administer the instrument if the individual is blind, illiterate, or below a 4th-grade reading level. In addition, the norms provided are appropriate for normally developing children such as those used in the standardization sample. If an individual’s performance is to be compared with a more specific reference group (for example, deaf, retarded, or children older than 6), the authors state that the suitability of the DOCS for that group should be established before evaluating test performance.

Report Preparation Support: There are instructions in the manual for how to share the results with others, including parents.

References:

Hresko, W.P., S.A. Miguel, R.J. Sherbenou, and S.D. Burton. Developmental Observation Checklist System: A Systems Approach to Assessing Very Young Children Examiner’s Manual. Pro-Ed: Austin, TX, 1994.