You are a family therapist and wish to include youth ages 5 to 18 in your assessment protocol. What are two meaningful ways you could assess young clients in your clinical practice? Explain why these two methods appeal to you

Most therapists would agree that children with emotional and behavioral issues would be handled more effectively when the family context is understood and addressed. There is no question that intervention based on awareness of each person in the family and on their relationships with each other is justified, given the significant empirical evidence for the mutual effect between families and children. The assessment of young children should provide a developmental, emotional and biological perspective on presenting symptoms and include data obtained from interviews, observation of dyadic or triadic experiences, as well as scores on validated screening instruments.

Typical development is characterized by the attainment of particular physical, cognitive, linguistic, social emotional and behavioral milestones that are affected by historical, cultural, genetic and environmental influences. Developmental theory has traditionally accepted both the theories of continuous developmental changes and discontinuous progression over time, thus stressing the existence of both crucial and vulnerable times. For example, the first five years of life are considered to be an especially important time for language acquisition. In the other hand, a responsive timeline defines a time when it is easier for children to learn those abilities, but the onset/offset of the timeframe is more incremental, and acquisition is not impossible after that timeframe. The assessment of a young child should be approached with these developmental lenses, where the assessor is attuned to the degree that the child may match or deviate from a traditional developmental trajectory, whether the child is in a time of continuous or discontinuous transition, or a critical versus sensitive phase.

Screening and assessing young children for mental and emotional wellbeing can be difficult due to a variety of factors. First of all, children typically do not have the language skills to describe in a meaningful way what they are experiencing rather than express their issues by behavioral warning flags, which, by their very nature, are nonspecific. Similarly, parents can also struggle to understand and describe the challenges they are facing with their children and their parenting skills. Despite these obstacles, accurate and effective screening and assessment maximizes the ability to guide young children and families to the resources they need before issues become ingrained. Standardized tools validated for young children may aid in the screening and assessment of young children and their relationships with their caregivers in a consistent way. It is also useful to measure progress across developmental areas, since young children do not acquire social emotional skills that are independent of language, cognitive and motor development. The following is a list of tools that are available and widely used:

• PTSD Young Child Screen
• Questionnaire on strengths and difficulties
• Parenting Stress Index