Designing An Evaluation Tool To Measure Emotional Goals

SEAM

An in-depth approach to social-emotional development.

The Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure (SEAM™) is an assessment that focuses exclusively on social-emotional and behavioral development in young children—and provides meaningful insights to caregivers and families. It provides in-depth information that can prevent problems by building positive partnerships with families and optimizing positive parent–child interactions in the first years of life.

See how.

Overview

An effective and comprehensive approach to social-emotional assessment.

With this in-depth, easy-to-use tool, social-emotional competence and development can be reliably assessed and monitored in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers at risk for delays or challenges. An ideal follow-up to screeners such as ASQ ^® :SE-2, the two-part SEAM™ assessment reveals detailed qualitative information on children's social-emotional competence— and identifies their caregivers' strengths and areas of need. Easy to learn and implement, SEAM can be used by a wide variety of early childhood professionals, including those with little or no training in mental health or behavioral interventions.

SEAM helps professionals to:

support development of important social-emotional skills in order to minimize challenging behaviors
build strong, proactive partnerships with families
promote positive parent–child interactions in the critical first years of life
assist with choosing developmentally appropriate goals and intervention activities
monitor child progress toward social-emotional goals

SEAM is a two-part assessment available in English and Spanish; see how it works.

View the Using the SEAM with Young Children webcast, presented by SEAM developers Jane Squires, Ph.D., and Misti Waddell, M.S.

Watch the SEAM webcast

Product Details

SEAM, Research Edition

User's Guide, plus CD-ROM with master forms in English and Spanish

$52.00 • Stock Number: 72803 • 2014 • ISBN 978-1-59857-280-3

SEAM-72803

How It Works

SEAM: How it works.

SEAM is a two-part assessment: SEAM child assessment and SEAM Family Profile.

SEAM Child Assessment

This assessment includes three intervals with different developmental ranges:

Infant(2–18 months)
Toddler(18–36 months)
Preschool(36–66 months)

Each interval assesses 10 child benchmarks critical to social-emotional competence, including empathy, adaptive skills, self-image, emotional responses, and healthy interactions with others.

SEAM is flexible enough to meet your specific needs—parents/caregivers can complete it independently, or it can be conducted jointly with healthcare providers if desired. The SEAM system also includes SEAM with Ages, an alternate version of the tool annotated with a helpful list of age ranges for each item. This version makes it easy to give caregivers general guidance on how social-emotional skills typically develop and where their child's development fits on the continuum.

See a sample SEAM Form

SEAM Family Profile

The Family Profile assesses parent and caregiver strengths and helps identify areas in which they need more supports and resources to foster their child's social-emotional skills. Like the main SEAM, the Family Profile assessment includes three intervals—Infant, Toddler, and Preschool. Each interval measures four benchmarks key to a nurturing home environment: responding to needs, providing activities and play, providing predictable routines and an appropriate environment, and ensuring home safety.

See a sample Family Profile form

View the developers' SEAM poster from the 2014 Zero to Three National Training Institute

See the SEAM Poster

View a presentation on SEAM and ASQ:SE from the 2014 NAEYC conference

See the Presentation

At a Glance

What does it assess?

The Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure (SEAM) is an assessment tool for measuring children's social-emotional development and parenting competence.

Who are the developers?

SEAM was developed by some of the key developers and trainers for the Ages & Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional, Second Edition (ASQ:SE-2) screener: Jane Squires, Ph.D., Diane Bricker, Ph.D., Misti Waddell, M.S., Kristin Funk, M.A., LCSW, Jantina Clifford, Ph.D., and Robert Hoselton.

What is the age range of children assessed?

What are the components?

The SEAM Tool – includes three intervals with different developmental ranges: Infant (2–18 months), Toddler (18–36 months), and Preschool (36–66 months) and helps identify a child's strengths, concerns for the family that need monitoring, and agreed-on focus areas

The SEAM Family Profile – also has three developmental intervals and assesses parent and caregiver strengths and helps identify areas in which they need more supports and resources to foster their child's social-emotional skills

(The SEAM system also includes SEAM with Ages, an alternate version of the tool annotated with a helpful list of age ranges for each item.)

What does it examine?

For each interval, the Tool assesses 10 child benchmarks critical to social-emotional competence:

Child participates in healthy interactions
Child expresses a range of emotions
Child regulates social-emotional responses
Child begins to show empathy for others
Child attends to and engages with others
Child explores hands and feet and surroundings (for infants)/demonstrates independence (for toddlers/preschoolers)
Child displays a positive self-image
Child regulates activity level
Child cooperates with daily routines and requests
Child shows a range of adaptive skills

The Family Profile also measures four benchmarks key to a nurturing home environment for each interval:

responding to needs
providing activities and play
providing predictable routines and an appropriate environment, and
ensuring home safety

Where is it conducted?

In early childhood programs, homes, or other settings where children are served

Who conducts it?

Early interventionists, early childhood teachers, Head Start & Early Head Start staff, home visitors, parent educators, and mental health professionals

How long does it take to complete?

15–30 minutes (SEAM/SEAM with Ages)

10–15 minutes (Family Profile)

What languages is it available in?

English and Spanish (both are included on the CD-ROM)

Is it research-based?

Yes, SEAM has been researched with 2,200 children from 49 U.S. states and Canada.

How can the results be used?

Qualitative data from the SEAM and Family Profile can be used to determine areas for greater intervention; answers can be converted to numerical values for progress monitoring.

Hear from the SEAM developers why it's important to measure social-emotional development.

Read the Interview

Technical Info

Research and validity specifics for SEAM

To confirm the utility and efficacy of SEAM, intensive research has been performed—details can be viewed below.

Research sample	2,200 children from 49 U.S. states and Canada
Inter-rater reliability (SEAM and SEAM with Ages)	Infant: 0.776 p < .01 Toddler: 0.752 Preschool: No data
Test-retest reliability (SEAM and SEAM with Ages)	Infant: 0.987 p < .01 Toddler: 0.968 p < .01 Preschool: 0.989 p < .01
Concurrent Validity (SEAM and SEAM with Ages)	Infant: .754 with DECA-IT .628 with ITSEA Compliance, -.415* with ITSEA Negative Emotion, .651 with ITSEA ProSocial -.557 with ASQ:SEToddler: .564 with ITSEA Compliance, -.261 with ITSEA Negative Emotion, .652 with ITSEA ProSocial -.516 with ASQ:SEPreschool: -.810** with ASQ:SE* p < .05 ** p < .01
Utility (SEAM and SEAM with Ages)	Parents (sample of 434) 93% felt SEAM included appropriate and useful questions 56% were alerted to new child skills as a result of completing the SEAM Practitioners (sample of 35) 92% agree that completing SEAM gave meaningful information about children

For more technical details, view SEAM's technical report.

Read more

"We chose ASQ because it is easy to do, low cost, culturally sensitive, and it meets our purpose of basic screening for our children's development. Our infant teachers base their curriculum on each individual child based on the ASQ."

Kathy Bostic, Program Supervisor, Pinehurst Child Care Center