Description: HELP is a curriculum-based
assessment consisting of 685 developmental skills and behaviors
covering six traditional child developmental domains: cognitive,
language, gross motor, fine motor, social-emotional, and self-help.
The developmental skills are organized by skill domains and,
within skill domains, by “conceptual strands.”
Within each strand, the skills are sequentially ordered by
age. For the assessment, the examiner selects several developmental
skills above and below the child’s approximate developmental
age from each developmental domain and prepares 5 to 10 play
or daily activities to elicit several skills concurrently.
In addition to working with the child using the prepared activities,
the examiner also observes the child’s environment and
interviews the parents for information.
Uses of Information: HELP can
be used to identify needs, track growth and development, and
develop plans for meeting objectives. It can be used to identify
a child’s developmental skills and behaviors along multiple
lines of development, the child’s developmental skill
and behavior strengths and needs, physical and social environment
factors affecting development, and the way development in
one area may be affecting development in other areas.
Reliability: None reported.
Validity: Face and content validity
tests were used to select and group the skills. The skills
were selected from growth-and-development scales and standardized
tests. An interdisciplinary team of pediatric therapists grouped
the skills into strands and sequentially ordered them by age.
No tests of concurrent or predictive validity reported.
Method of Scoring: Behaviors
are scored as “present,” “not present,”
“emerging,” “atypical/dysfunctional,”
or “not applicable.” HELP Strands or HELP Checklist
can be used to record outcomes and track progress. Because
it divides each domain into strands, HELP Strands is recommended
for children with disabilities or more uneven development
within a domain.
Interpretability: Although the
manual does not provide any exact rules or formulas for determining
approximate developmental levels, it does provide general
“rule of thumb” guidelines. The manual provides
an explanation for a delay or atypical behavior for each skill
area, along with appropriate interventions.
Training Support: A 20-minute
training video, Using HELP Effectively, can be purchased from
VORT for $14.95. It is recommended that this video be used
in conjunction with the Inside HELP. The instruction chapter
of the Inside HELP manual can be found in the training section
on the VORT web page.
Adaptations/Special Instructions for
Individuals with Disabilities: Inside Help has examples
of adjustments to accommodate specific disabilities and special
needs when assessing skills and behaviors.
Report Preparation Support: HELP
Strands and HELP Checklist can be used to communicate the
child’s progress to parents.
References:
Parks, Stephanie. Inside HELP: Administration and Reference
Manual, 1997 Revision. Palo Alto, CA: VORT Corporation, 1999.
VORT Corporation. Using HELP Effectively. Palo Alto, CA:
VORT Corporation, 1994
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