Description: The High/Scope
Child Observation Record for Infants and Toddlers (COR-IT)
enables the user to conduct an ongoing, comprehensive, systematic
assessment in programs serving children from the ages of 6
weeks to 3 years. COR-IT’s 28 items are divided into
6 categories: (1) sense of self, (2) social relations, (3)
creative representation, (4) movement, (5) communication and
language, and (6) exploration and early logic. Over weeks
or months, the caregiver records brief, anecdotal notes describing
examples of children’s behavior in these six categories.
At the end of the observation period, which usually takes
place over a period of weeks or months, the caregiver uses
these notes to complete a development summary form. The COR-IT
has a computer software version that allows individuals to
use their computers to record and store observations and to
generate COR scores and reports based on this information.
Uses of Information: COR-IT
provides an accurate assessment of a child’s development
and abilities, which can be used to help programs plan activities
for the child, to monitor the effects of these activities
and the progress of the child, to assess the effectiveness
of the program and its curriculum, and to provide a framework
for communicating with parents about a child’s developmental
needs.
Reliability: (1) Internal consistency
reliability (Cronbach alpha): The alpha for the entire 28-item
scale was .99, and the alphas for the six categories were
.92 or .93. The alphas for the 28-item scale for each age
category were .94 for infants under 1 year, .95 for children
1 to 2 years, and .78 for children 2 to 3 years. (2) Inter-rater
reliability: The Pearson correlations between two groups of
observers were .93 for the overall scale and ranged from .83
to .91 for the six categories.
Validity: (1) Concurrent: The
correlations between COR-IT and the Bayley Mental and Motor
Age Scores were .87 and .91, respectively. The correlations
ranged from .88 to .92 between the six COR-IT categories and
the motor age score and .83 to .90 between the categories
and the mental age score. Since both the COR-IT and the Bayley
scores are strongly influenced by the child’s age, the
authors also tested for validity with the effects of age statistically
removed the from the correlations. When they did this, they
obtained correlations between the COR-IT scale and the mental
and motor scores of .26 and .36 respectively.
Method of Scoring: The Observation
Item manual provides 5 examples of typical behavior for each
of the 28 items. For each item, the care-giver compares those
examples with his/her notes to rank the child’s typical
behavior of the item on a five-point scale from simple (1)
to more complex (5) in the development summary form and also
enters the highest level of behavior the child achieved. The
form provides instructions to compute the average and composite
scores. If the program requires a group summary, the caregiver
completes the group summary form using the information on
the children’s development summary form and follows
the instructions on the form to compute the average and group
growth scores.
Interpretability: The results
from the observations are intended to be used by both the
care-giver and the program administrators. No descriptions
are provided on how to interpret the results.
Training Support: High/Scope
recommends the caregiver attend a two-day workshop on the
use of COR-IT, which is offered throughout the country. There
is also a one-day training on the computer software. Information
on the training schedule and topics are available on the High/Scope
Website or by emailing: training@highscope.org.
Adaptations/Special Instructions for
Individuals with Disabilities: Adaptations and special
instructions are unnecessary as long as the child’s
level of functioning is between ages 6 and 36 months. However,
High/Scope cautions that the reliability and the validity
of the instrument with special needs populations have not
been established.
Report Preparation Support: An
Observation About Your Child form can be used to prepare a
report for parents. The COR-IT computer software allows for
presentation of ratings in both graphic and narrative form.
References:
High/Scope Educational Research Foundation. High/Scope Child
Observation Record for Infants and Toddlers User Guide. Ypsilanti,
MI: High/Scope Press, 2002.
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