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Third Tool: Assessment Measures
- Obtain an estimate of cognitive/language functioning. This
doesn't have to be a long-form IQ test, but could include a brief indicator
of the child's ability to understand and respond to questions. The child's
cognitive and language functioning has clinical significance
(e.g. school placement issues) as well as forensic relevance
(proof that the child is competent to understand and answer interview
questions). Some examples of cognitive level or language development
tests include:
- Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT) (Kaufman, 1990)
- Kaufman Infant and Preschool Scale (Kaufman, 1979)
- Boehm Test of Basic Concepts (Boehm, 1984)
- Cognitive Abilities Test, Form 5 (Thorndike & Hagen, 1995)
- Cognitive Diagnostic Battery (Kay, 1982)
- McCarthy Screening Test (McCarthy, 1978)
- Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III (Dunn, 1997)
- Assess degree of psychological impact. Useful are depression
inventories, trauma inventories, dissociation inventories, behavioral
rating scales, and personality inventories. (Warning: be aware of professional
licenses required to interpret many of these measures). Projective tests
are useful in assessing clinical issues related to treatment needs, but
are the most vulnerable to forensic challenge in court. Although not an
inclusive list, the following are some of the tests and inventories used
by many psychologists in abuse assessments:
- The Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1992)
- AAMR Adaptive Behavior Scale-School, Second Edition
(Nihira, Leland, & Lambert, 1993)
- Behavior Assessment System for Children (Reynolds & Kamphaus,
1992)
- Burks' Behavior Rating Scales (Burks, 1977)
- Behavior Rating Profile: Second Edition (Brown & Hammill,
1990)
- The Child Sexual Behavior Inventory (Friedrich, 1997)
- The Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (Briere, 1996)
- The Child Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1992)
- Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS) (Reynolds, 1989)
- The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A)
(Hathaway & McKinley, 1992)
- Children's Impact of Traumatic Events Scale-Revised (CITES-R)
(Wolf et. al., 1987)
- Children's Apperception Test (CAT) (Bellack, 1993)
- Roberts Apperception Test for Children (RATC) (McArthur and Roberts,
1990)
- The Picture Story Telling Test (Caruso, 1988)
- Other issues in Assessment:
- Assess child's understanding of truth/lie
- Use of forensic drawings
- Use of anatomically detailed dolls (psychological and/or other
evaluators should first carefully examine guidelines from: www.apsac.org)
- Research shows sexually abused children are 6-8 times more
likely to include genitalia in drawings.
- Dolls can be ordered from several sources, such as WPS: 1-800-648-8857
Contacting Psychological Test Publishers On-Line
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