Authors:
Jane A. Caballero and Derek Whordley

Publisher:
Humanics Psychological Test Corp.
(800) 874-8844
(404) 874-1976 (fax)
www.humanicslearning.com
info@humanicslearning.com

Initial Material Cost:
Manual: $19
Forms (25): $35

Representativeness of Norming Sample:
None. The authors recommend that each facility develop local norms and provides the formula to derive percentage rank.

Languages:
English

Type of Assessment:
Observation

Age Range and Administration Interval:
0 to 3 years; four-month intervals are recommended between assessments, but the examiner can choose to deviate from this.

Personnel, Training, Administration, and Scoring Requirements:
Can be administered by teachers or parents. Training to enhance observational skills is desirable, and some knowledge of child development concepts is required to understand the importance of assessment items.

Summary
Initial Material Cost: 1 (> $100)
Reliability: 1 (none described)
Validity: 1 (none described)
Norming Sample Characteristics: 1 (none described)
Ease of Administration and Scoring: 2 (administered and scored by someone with basic clerical skills)

Description: The Humanics National Child Assessment Form (HNCAF) is a checklist of 90 skills and behaviors exhibited by children during the first three years of life. The skills/behaviors are grouped into four broad categories—social-emotional, language, cognitive, and gross and fine motor development. The assessment lists 18 skill/behavior items in each of these five areas, listed in the order they are likely to emerge. The assessment can be administered either through informal observations or through activities with the child.

Uses of Information: HNCAF is designed for use by caregivers to identify the skills and behavior a child has, to screen for developmental or physical impairments, to plan learning experiences that facilitate further growth, and to monitor the child’s progress. HNCAF can also be used for parent training.

Reliability: Not discussed.

Validity: Not discussed.

Method of Scoring: The child’s responses are scored by checking one of two boxes (occurs consistently or occurs occasionally) or, if the behavior is not present, by leaving the boxes unchecked.

Interpretability: The manual discusses how the assessment results can be used to develop an individual profile and educational plan for the child and has an example of how this might be done.

Training Support: Not mentioned in the manual. The authors suggest reading Betty Rowen’s book, The Children We See (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1973) for techniques for observing children’s behavior.

Adaptations/Special Instructions for Individuals with Disabilities: The manual describes areas of disabilities and indicators of these disabilities that may be observed while administering the assessment.

Report Preparation Support: The manual provides an example of a completed report.

References:

Caballero, Jane and Derek Whordley. Humanics National Infant-Toddler Assessment Handbook: A User’s Guide for the Humanics National Child Assessment For Ages 0-3. Atlanta, GA: Humanics Psychological Test, Corp., 1994.