A Review of Outcome Measures in Early Childhood Programs

Abstract

The authors undertook a review of measures available for assessing outcomes of early childhood services for children with disabilities and their families. With principles of family‐centered practice mandating the inclusion of both family and child outcome measures in effective evaluation plans, the review examined measures with established psychometric properties for (a) documenting the effectiveness of partnerships with families, and (b) documenting the effectiveness of services and supports for families. Constructs and their associated measures related to partnerships include satisfaction with the overall program and empowerment. The constructs for outcomes of supports and services include social support, parenting, and family quality of life. The authors reviewed measures for each of the five constructs. They note that the selection of appropriate measures to assess the outcomes of family support and services depends on the specific configuration of support services provided by the program and that each program may have to be explicit about the outcomes it wants to impact and therefore measure.

Family Quality of Life of Turkish Families Who Have Children with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism

“…By contrast, household/income, SES group, age of child with disability, and type of disability had low predictive powers. Other studies support the strong predictive association between family social support and FQOL perceptions (Crowley & Kazdin, 1998;Davis & Gavidia-Payne, 2009;Shun-Yao Ho, 2005;Lunsky & Benson, 2001;Caron et al, 1997;Pittman & Lloyd, 1988;Md-Sidin et al, 2010;Mannan et al, 2006).…”

Family quality of life: adaptation to Spanish population of several family support questionnaires

“…In recent years, family quality of life (FQOL) has emerged as one of the main outcomes for services that assist people with intellectual disability (ID) (Schalock & Verdugo 2002; Brown & Brown 2004; Shalock 2004; Turnbull et al . 2004; Mannan et al . 2006; Turnbull et al .…”

“…Moving from a consensus definition to the development of a FQOL theory, Zuna et al . (2010) note that the FQOL concept is fundamentally explained by the contributions from ecological theory and systems theory (Turnbull 2003; Mannan et al . 2006).…”

“…The consolidation of the paradigm of support for people with ID, based on the ecological conception of development, implies shifting the focus from the changing characteristics of individuals to the possibilities of the environment; to developing support networks in the different environments in which the person lives; and particularly, to providing services and support to the family. A parallel line of work focused on the family (Mannan et al . 2006) holds the same assumption that family well‐being is similarly conditioned by the supports they may receive.…”

Measures of Parent Satisfaction with Early Intervention Services for Children with Physical Disabilities: A Systematic Review

“…The individual family service plan (IFSP) is developed in collaboration with family members to address both family needs and strengths when setting goals to assist children with disability to achieve their optimal potential (Bailey, Buysse, Edmondson, & Smith, 1992). These and other principles embodied in this act have now been endorsed internationally (Manan, Summers, Turnbull, & Poston, 2006).…”