Human and Social Development

THE AFRICAN EARLY CHILD DEVELOPMENT MEASURES RESOURCE

Explanation of classification

For ease of use, measures were classified based on features relevant to their selection and use in an African context. Specifically, categories within Table 1 included measure type, target population (age), measure constructs, African languages into which the measure has been translated, African norms, the number of published and unpublished African psychometric studies and the number of published and unpublished African research studies that have used the measure. In the electronic version of the resource classifications within these fields are available in drop down menus to facilitate searches. In the static version of the resource, information within these fields is documented in Table 1. Most of these categories and the classifications are self explanatory (eg, the number of unpublished studies), however a few points are worth noting.

Firstly, the classification of measures by type was based on the major categories identified in the subject index of Tests In Print VI (Murphy, Plake, Impara & Spies, 2002). While we are aware that this kind of classification is increasing recognised as theoretically problematic and may indeed serve to calcify somewhat arbitrary distinctions, 'catalogue classification' provides an indexing format that is widely familiar to researchers. In this respect the major categories and their definitions are as follows.

Developmental - measures designed to assess the skills or emerging skills of young children or measures which are designed to assess such skills in severely disabled school-aged individuals. Intelligence & General Aptitude - measures of general acquired knowledge, aptitudes, or cognitive ability and those that assess specific aspects of these general categories. Achievement - measures of acquired knowledge across school subject content areas. Neuropsychological - measures designed to assess neurological functioning either generally or in relation to specific areas of functioning. Personality Related - measures of individuals' ways of thinking, behaving and functioning within family and society. Miscellaneous - measures that cannot be categorised into the before mentioned categories. Here we have focused specifically on measures utilized in Structured Observation (e.g., novel coding systems and rating scales) as well as a limited number of Environmental Assessments.

Secondly, no attempt has been made to provide a theoretical or evidence based classification of the constructs assessed by various measures. Classifications within the measure constructs category are thus based only on the semantic similarity of the scores produced by the measures.

Thirdly, although African norms and translations of measures into African languages are cited by country and language, these often (almost always) do not reflect translations available from publishers or comprehensive published norms. Indeed often these reflect translations, adaptations and norms conducted only within the context of a small study or within masters and doctoral work. In such cases the country and language are marked with an asterisk.