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BEFORE you begin an assessment with the HELP, several steps are suggested.

1. Conduct a family-friendly interview.
2. Explain the purpose of the assessment to the family; offer options for their participation (e.g., they play with or feed child while you observe; they choose who else should participate; they suggest who else to talk with, such as the babysitter).
3. Review other pertinent information (e.g., medical, previous assessments).
4. Ask families if they have any videos of their child they would like to share as part of the assessment.
5. Credit skills in the protocol based on observations (videos), reports, and/or interviews, noting the information’s source.
6. Highlight several skills above and below the child’s estimated developmental age in each strand.
7. Review the highlighted skills in Inside HELP®.
8. Decide on several daily routines and play activities that are likely to elicit skills across domains; use materials that are familiar to the child.

DURING the administration of the HELP assessment, follow these steps for ease of administration.

1. Bring the HELP® protocol with any collected “pre-assessment” notes and credits. These may include notes and credits from reports, interviews or conversations with the family, the RBI, or observations you have made from videos that the family has shared directly on the recording booklet.
2. Credit responses during observation and eliciting situations directly on the protocol; OR
3. Take brief notes during the visit and record credits after you have left the home-and do so on the same day so your recollection is accurate! If you are less familiar with the HELP® skills, you may want to take notes about the child’s skills and credit skills later, instead of paging through the protocol during the assessment visit. As you become more familiar with the tool, you can record directly on the protocol more easily during the assessment.  Crediting the child’s skills immediately after the assessment also permits you to look up a skill in Inside HELP® to verify that the child has met the criteria.
4. Consider videotaping the session with parents’ permission so that you can view and review it for additional detail and accuracy in crediting. You may wish to give the video to the family after the assessment is completed.
5. Ask families if they have additional information or videos that they would like to share for the assessment.
6. It’s NOT just about skills: observe quality of skills and interactions. Whenever the quality of the child’s skills or behaviors are in question, be sure to check the atypical credit information located in Inside HELP® (look at the Strand Preface’s “crediting information” section as well as the individual skill credit information).
7. Circle any credit for skills for which the family expresses a concern or for which they would like information; these circled skills flag areas for follow-up with the family during later visits. For example, if the child displays typical tantrum behaviors (Skill #5.42, Strand 5-2) and is credited with a “+”, but the family requests help dealing with the tantrums, circle that skill for later follow-up.
8. Remember that not all skills or strands will be applicable to any one child. Assess those that are appropriate to the child’s estimated developmental level.
9. Observe one or two daily routines or play activities for rich information across several domains and Strands; e.g., you may want to watch the child eating a snack to gain information about feeding skills, fine motor skills, and the child’s ability to make his wants known. Or you may want to engage the child in doll play to observe symbolic play, communication skills, and gross motor skills.  Your knowledge of the skills in each Strand will assist with this process as you become more familiar with the HELP®.
10. Turn to Inside HELP®, pp. 1.30-1.31, for a description of a sample Direct Assessment (i.e., a face-to-face assessment vs. the pre-assessment period when information was gathered from other sources).
11. A direct assessment may be structured to include these typical routines and daily activities as rich opportunities for observing family interactions, as well as child skills and behaviors.

• Free play/Warm-up Period
• Structured Facilitation
• Movement/Motor Activities
• Feeding/Snack Time
• Additional Activities/Closing

Where to start and stop assessing in the Strands:

To assist you in determining how many skills to administer in any one Strand, follow these guidelines from Inside HELP®:

1. If child displays 2 or more consecutive skills with good quality (+ +) in a Strand, you can assume achievement of earlier skills in that Strand;
2. If the child misses 2 skills in a row (- -) in a Strand, you can stop assessing in that Strand with confidence that the child cannot perform higher level skills in that Strand.

Since the skills in each Strand are listed in a hierarchical manner, it is easier to establish a basal (2 PLUSSES IN A ROW) and a ceiling (2 MINUSES IN A ROW).  You can then confidently mark all skills IN THAT STRAND younger than or below the basal with a plus and all skills older than or above the ceiling with a minus. This procedure does NOT apply to Strand 1-5 Spatial Relationships or Section 0.0 Regulatory/Sensory Organization; see the Checklist crediting procedures described next.

See the example below and page i.21 in the manual, Inside HELP.

Where to start and stop assessing in the Checklist:

For the Checklist, establishing the basal and ceiling for each domain requires assessing more skills than for the Strands. Since a wider variety of skills are covered in each DOMAIN and since consecutive skills are not necessarily related or build on each other, a broader base is required to establish a starting and ending point in the Checklist.

1. If child displays 4-5 consecutive skills with good quality (+ + + +) in a domain, you may assume achievement of earlier skills in that domain. A basal is established in each domain of the Checklist when the child has displayed four to five consecutive skills with good quality (four to five pluses in a row). When a child has four or five pluses in a row, you may assume achievement of all earlier skills in that DOMAIN and fill in the earlier skills accordingly on your protocol.
2. If the child misses 4-5 skills in a row (- – – -), you can usually stop assessing that domain with confidence that the child cannot perform any higher level skills. A ceiling is established in each domain of the Checklist when the child misses four to five consecutive skills (four to five minuses in row). You can then stop assessing in that domain, and fill in all higher skills with a minus.

NOTE: This process also must be used for the one strand and one section that are not hierarchical: Strand 1-5 Spatial Relationships and Section 0.0 Regulatory/Sensory Organization. See Inside HELP®, p. i.21.

AFTER you have completed the assessment, there are still several steps to complete the full assessment process.

1. Review credits, notes, and videos, to confirm and credit additional skills and to identify additional information needed.
2. Confirm your credits by checking criteria for individual skills using Inside HELP®. This is especially important for accuracy!
3. Note skills that were not able to be assessed for further exploration or reassessment.
4. Determine approximate developmental age levels for Strands, if applicable. We will practice this step in another lesson in this course.

The HELP® seems so big! Where do I begin?

• Assessment using the HELP® is not a “one-shot” deal.
• Not all skills are pertinent or appropriate.
• Do NOT assess each skill or strand separately.
• Get a general idea of where to begin before you start.

The next topics show you how to put these tips into action before, during, and after the assessment.

Skills that are shaded and marked with (*) on the protocol indicate that they are critical and must be assessed (see protocol cover sheet item 5, and for example, skill 5.08*).

Skills on the HELP® Strands protocol that are shaded and highlighted with an asterisk (*) are considered critical, foundational, lifetime skills.

These skills should always be assessed if the child’s chronological age is at or above the age at which the skill emerges.  They are “red flag” foundational skills which should develop and continue throughout the child’s life.

HELP® Activity Guide

The HELP® Activity Guide includes a variety of activities for each HELP® skill.  It is useful to professionals as a quick guide for finding curriculum ideas and activities for targeted child skills.

Example from HELP® Activity Guide 1.128

As you can see in the HELP Activity Guide page below from the Cognitive section, for skill 1.128, there are 4 activity suggestions listed to help a child develop the skills needed to find detail in a picture book. The Activity Guide lists the skill description, and several suggestions for eliciting that skill.

HELP® at Home

HELP® at Home is similar to the HELP® Activity Guide, but was developed for families and other caregivers as the “end-user” rather than professionals.

It contains only one skill per page, is family-centered, and focuses upon activities, information, and support in the context of everyday routines.

Information and activities are written from the child’s perspective (e.g., “If you want to help me, try….” or “I really like it when you…”) to encourage empathy and sensitive interactions.

This example below is for the same skill 1.128 examined above, “Finding details in favorite picture book,” and is targeted for family members.   It is found in the HELP® … at Home.

HELP® When the Parent has Disabilities

This guide offers suggestions for helping a parent with a disability (e.g., hearing impaired, vision loss, mentally challenged) to assist their child learn specific skills.  Skills are numbered the same as in other HELP® components.

This product is unique to the HELP® system and can be very helpful when parents have a disability.

Be aware that the guide has not been updated to reflect “person-first” terminology, such as referring to “parents who are blind” or “who have a visual impairment.”

The HELP® Charts are a helpful visual tool to show the progress of a child to the family.  Charts are organized by domain (two domains per chart) and skills are listed according to the range of months in which each emerges.

By highlighting skills credited during the initial assessment and again six months later, using different colored highlighters, the family has a visual representation of the progress their child is making.

The first component we will examine is the Inside HELP® Administration and Reference Manual for Birth – 3 Assessment (Parks, 2006). The Inside HELP® is the essential guide for using HELP® appropriately as an assessment system for children aged birth to 3 years.

The manual provides key assessment information and guidelines for each of the 685 HELP® skills for birth to 3 years, including:

• clear definitions
• assessment procedures
• credit criteria

The activities below will help you become more familiar with the information included in the introductory pages of Inside HELP^®. Tips are given for the pages where answers can be found.

Think Spot:  Methods for Gathering Info

? What methods can be used for gathering information about a child to credit skills on the protocol?

Hint: Look at Inside HELP®, pp. i.19 – i.21, and the cover of the HELP® Strands booklet.

Record your answers in your ? handout.

Based on your review of pages i.19 to i.21 of Inside HELP® and the Strands cover, you will see that the following methods may be used:

• Family-centered interview;
• collaboration with other professionals and family to gather current medical and assessment information;
• review of records with family consent;
• Observation; and
• direct assessment.

Think Spot: Age Range

? A unique feature of this instrument is the age range listed for each skill.  What does the age range tell you and what is the purpose of expressing the age in this manner?

Hint: Look at Inside HELP®, p. i.23.

Record your answers in your ? handout.

As you can see on page i.23 of Inside HELP®, in the top box, second bullet, the age ranges listed are when skills typically begin according to the literature; they do not represent when a skill begins and ends. This difference is an important distinction to explain to families and other professionals. The age range also allows for variances in the typical development of young children.

Think Spot: Supporting Families

?  Describe specific ways that the HELP® supports involvement of the family in the assessment process.

Hint: Look at Inside HELP®, pages i.16, i.33, 1, and 3.

Record your answers in your ? handout.

If you said through family friendly interpretations of each strand; by involving families in every step of the process; by including sample parent questions; and by providing a family centered interview form; you are right!

Finding your way around Inside HELP® Preface:

Prior to each Strand in Inside HELP® is a Preface.  The information helps you to assess “more than just skills,” applies to each skill in the Strand, and can be identified by its icon.

HELP® 0-3 has evolved since 1979 from a child-centered collection of curricular activities and skills into a comprehensive curriculum-based assessment system.

For more information, see pages i.11-i.13 Inside HELP®. 

For this course, we will be referring to the Inside HELP® Administration and Reference Manual (Parks, 2006) and the HELP® Strands or Checklist protocols; have all materials ready to review!

The HELP® is considered a family-centered, curriculum-based assessment system. Family-friendly explanations are included to help families understand what is being assessed and why.  Parent questions are provided to help families 1) identify unique strengths and needs related to the development of their child and 2) identify family concerns, priorities and resources (Parks, 2006). Within the Manual, assessment of each skill is directly linked to planning and curriculum components of the HELP®.

The following topics will describe each of the materials available for the HELP® 0-3 system.

HELP® Materials for 0-3 Years

The materials listed here evolved into the HELP® Birth to 3 System. All components are not necessary for every child; however, the Inside HELP® (Parks, 2006) manual is required for assessment because it is the administration and reference guide for assessing with HELP® 0-3 materials. This course will focus on using Inside HELP® with either the HELP® Strands or HELP® Checklist protocols.

Assessment & Planning Components

• Inside HELP®
• HELP® Checklist
• HELP® Strands
• HELP® Charts
• HELP® Family Centered Interview

Intervention Components

• HELP® at Home
• HELP® Activity Guide
• HELP® When the Parent Has Disabilities

HELP® Framework

Before reviewing each of the components, let’s view this graphic of the basic framework of the HELP® skills.

All the HELP® components for children aged birth to three years are based on a set of 685 developmental skills, within six broad domains that are similar to the domains used in many early intervention tools. There is also an added section, 0.0 Regulatory/Sensory Organization, in the Strands, which pulls items from several domains; we’ll discuss it in more detail later.

HELP® components have a unique numbering system for each skill within domains. For example, all skills that are listed in the cognitive domain start with a 1. Thus, skill 1.01 “Quiets when picked up” is the first skill listed in the cognitive domain in the original Checklist.

The HELP® is…

• A criterion-referenced assessment:

An evaluation that attempts to uncover the strengths and weakness of a child in terms of what he or she knows or doesn’t know, understands or doesn’t understand, or can do or cannot do, as measured against a benchmark or standard (Assessment of Preschool Children).

• Curriculum-based:

Curriculum-based assessments provide a direct assessment of a child’s skills upon entry into a curriculum; guide development of individual goals, interventions, and accommodations; and allow for continual monitoring of developmental progress (McLean et al., 2004).

• Designed to determine developmental status and to plan interventions for a child:

Ensuring an accurate view of the child’s behavior and developmental status through the assessment process is essential. It provides the road map for the design of meaningful and appropriate IFSPs/IEPs and informs curriculum and program planning decisions (Sevell-Nelson, 2005).

The HELP® is not…

• A screening tool:

Screening includes activities to identify children who may need further evaluation in order to determine the existence of a delay in development or a particular disability (Shaw, n.d.; Screening, Evaluation and Assessment)

• Normed or standardized:

As indicated by the HELP author: The HELP assessments, including the HELP Strands, are not norm-referenced or standardized, and will not yield a single age level or score.  The major purpose of HELP is to identify curriculum outcomes, goals, strategies and activities.

• Designed to determine eligibility for early intervention services:

The HELP is not intended to provide standardized evaluation or diagnostic results.