Early Screening Profiles (ESP)

Early Screening Profiles (ESP)

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  A comprehensive, yet brief, multi-dimensional screening instrument for children.


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  Ages: 2-0 through 6-11


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  Administration Time: 15-40 minutes


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  Suggested for: Early childhood specialists, preschool and kindergarten

Screens the five major developmental areas

Early Screening Profiles is an indispensable tool that uses multiple domains, settings, and sources to measure cognitive, language, motor, self-help, and social development. It also surveys the child\’s articulation, home environment, health history, and test behavior. The result is an ecologically valid assessment that provides a wealth of practical information to help you make accurate screening decisions, as well as plan intervention strategies for children and their families.

Appealing test items

Professionals and paraprofessionals in educational, medical, or community settings will appreciate ESP\’s clear directions, simple scoring system, and test items that appeal to the very young. This, coupled with straightforward parent and teacher questionnaires, makes ESP efficient and easy to use.

Flexible, quick screening

The three basic components, called Profiles, are supplemented by four Surveys. You can administer all of the profiles and surveys-or just the ones you need. For most children the Profiles can be administered in less than 30 minutes. The Surveys require an additional 15-20 minutes.

Three Profiles

Cognitive/Language Profile is administered individually to the child. Tasks assess reasoning skills, visual organization and discrimination, receptive and expressive vocabulary, and basic school skills. The profile can be separated into cognitive (nonverbal) and language (verbal) subscales, a useful feature for screening children with limited English proficiency, language difficulties, or hearing problems. Motor Profile, also individually administered, assesses both gross and fine motor skills-such as walking a straight line, imitating arm and leg movements, tracing mazes, and drawing shapes. Self-Help/Social Profile is a questionnaire completed by the child\’s parent, teacher, daycare provider, or a combination of them. It assesses the child\’s typical performance in the areas of communication, daily living skills, socialization, and motor skills.Four Surveys

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  Articulation Survey measures the child\’s ability to pronounce 20 words selected to test common articulation problems in the initial, medial, and final positions of words.


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  Home Survey is completed by the parent and asks nonintrusive questions about the child\’s home environment.


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  Health History Survey, also completed by the child\’s parent, is a brief checklist of any health problems the child has had.


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  Behavior Survey is used by the examiner to rate the child\’s behavior during administration of the Cognitive/Language and Motor Profiles. The child is rated in categories such as attention span, frustration tolerance, and response style.

Two scoring systems

Level I converts Profile scores into Screening Indexes. You can use six broad categories corresponding to standard deviation units on the normal curve to determine which children need further assessment. Level I users can choose the Screening Index to set the cutoff point for possible at-risk classification. Level II provides standard scores with bands of error, percentile ranks, and age equivalents. Level II users can choose the standard score, percentile rank, stanines, NCEs, or age equivalents to set the cutoff point for further assessment.

Directly linked to other diagnostic tools

ESP is compatible with instruments that can be used for more detailed follow-up assessment, such as the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children [K-ABC], Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, and Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, to name just a few.

Components

ESP\’s three basic components, called Profiles, as supplemented by four Surveys. For most children, the total time needed for the three Profiles is under 30 minutes. The Surveys, completed by a parent, teacher, or screening examiner, require an additional 15 – 20 minutes.

Plus, ESP

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  Is an excellent predictor of later development and school achievement.


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  Meets federal guidelines and mandates.


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  Can be administered by paraprofessionals, allowing professionals to focus on children identified as needing more comprehensive assessment.


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  Represents the first nationally standardized screener to provide users with a manual that reports the results of predictive, concurrent, and construct validity studies conducted during the two-year time period between standardization and test publication. The manual also includes information regarding internal consistency, immediate and delayed test-retest reliability, and standard error of measurement.


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  Is backed by extensive research. A representative, national standardization sample allows appropriate comparisons of children with others the same age in the U.S. The scoring system also provides simple determination of local norms.


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  Links directly to many other diagnostic tools, such as the K-ABC, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, and others.


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  ESP Training Video (purchase separately)

This video offers helpful information about administering and accurately scoring the tests. It is meant to augment the directions and present a better understanding of how ESP works.