Four Pillars of Assessment

Four pillars of assessment provide information about a client's knowledge, skill, behaviour, and/or personality. The four pillars complement one another and the information collected provide a basis for professionals to address the presenting problems and needs of the clients.

Norm-referenced Measures

Norm-referenced assessments are standardized on a clearly defined norm group, a group of individuals who have taken the test in the population.

Norm-referenced assessment refers to an assessment that ranks clients on a “bell curve” to determine the highest and lowest performing individuals. This method is used to understand how client' scores compare to the norm group.

Norm-referenced measures are economical and efficient means of sampling behaviour and quantifying a child's functioning.

Interviews

Interviewing a client and other individuals familiar with the client (e.g. parents and teachers) can provide valuable assessment information.

There are three types of interviews: structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews. Structured interviews are rigid but comprehensive, and the information collected could be useful for psychiatric diagnosis. The other two are less rigid so that you can get the information, such as the client's view about his problems, that cannot be obtained in standardized assessments.

Behavioural Observations

Recoding what have been observed in the observation session is important for case formulation and intervention planning. Coding can help us focus on the target behaviours. Recording methods should be chosen according to the type of behaviours to be observed.

Informal Assessment Procedures

Although informal assessment procedures (e.g. role playing, reviewing work samples and informal assessment of reading ability), may have unknown or questionable technical adequacy, the data collected can supplement norm-referenced measures and be useful for interventions development.