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LAB 5 REPORT: SCORING AND INTERPRETING STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENTS

LAB 5: Scoring, Interpreting, & Reporting T-Scores & Percentile Scores

HDFS 421 | KRISTINA TIO | NOVEMBER 8TH, 2017
INTRODUCTION
For this report, its purpose is to follow-up on some concern about the child A’s
challenging social-emotional behaviors. As I have obtained a permission form child A’s parents,
I was able to obtain some data on Child A. For this lab report, I have analyzed and interpreted
the data that were obtained from the Child Behavior Checklist Caregiver-Teacher Report Form
(CTRF) in order for the child study team to know the recommended steps in evaluating child A. I
will be showing this report to my supervisor, child A’s parents, and the child study team.
According to the data, the child’s name is Child A. The child is a female and she was
born on July 20th, 2009. The data was taken on September, 27th 2011, in which makes Child A to
be 26 months old at the time. Again, the data was obtained through the Child Behavior Checklist
Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (CTRF) where it covers the social-emotional domain. The
assessment is a norm-referenced test, where the child’s score would be compared with a group of
children who have the same age as the child’s.
In the assessment, 100 problem behaviors are divided into 7 syndrome scales and those
scales are put into two broad groupings that are Internalizing and Externalizing. As the data is
obtained for each category, the total numbers for each group has been set into percentile ranks
and T-Scores, in which at the end, we would know whether Child A is at the normal, borderline
or clinical range. From knowing the position of Child A in the norm-referenced group,
recommendations and follow-ups can be made based on the result.
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LAB 5 REPORT: SCORING AND INTERPRETING STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENTS
DATA SUMMARY
for more data, refer to appendix i
TABLE 1 Child A’s Report Form CTRF Data
Raw Percentile Rank T-Score Clinical Cut-Off Score
Score (Normal/Borderline/Clinical)
Internalizing (Syndrome scale I-III)
Syndrome I: 4 91st 64 Normal
Emotionally Reactive
Syndrome II: 8 96th 69 Borderline
Anxious/Depressed
Syndrome III: 9 99th 85 Clinical
Somatic Complaints
Syndrome IV: 6 91st 64 Normal
Withdrawn
TOTAL 27 - 71 Clinical
Externalizing (Syndrome scale V-VI)
Syndrome V: 12 98th 70 Clinical
Attention Problems
Syndrome VI: 10 85th 59 Normal
Aggressive Behavior
TOTAL 22 - 63 Borderline
TOTAL 73 - 69 Clinical
(PROBLEMS)

INTERPRETATION

From Table 1, Child A’s total problem scores is in the clinical range as her total score is
69 and has crossed the borderline range where its T-Score ranges from 60 – 63. As Child A’s
score is approximately 2 standard deviations away from the mean which is 50, it shows that
Child A is getting closer to the 0.5% of the group of children who are at the right-most clinical
range. Overall, based on the total score, it shows that Child A will be needing some intervention
in order for her to go down almost 10 points of T-score to the normal range.
From the two broad groupings, Child A needs the most intervention in the internalizing
group, where she is in the clinical range as she has the T-Score of 71. As each group has its own
syndrome scales, most of the syndromes are closer to the clinical range where the percentile rank
of each syndromes range from the 91st – 99th with the T-Score range of 64 – 85. It means that
Child A is among the 10% of the children who have gotten high indication on their problematic
behaviors with the score that equal or higher them the T-Score of 64. Comparing with the
borderline range of the syndrome scale (65 – 69), it seems that Child A need an intervention
especially on her anxious/depressed and somatic complaints since she is either on that range and
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LAB 5 REPORT: SCORING AND INTERPRETING STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENTS

even over the borderline. As her socio-emotional behaviors are more concerning to the effects on
her internal state, it is also shown that her internalizing socio-emotional behaviors that relate
with her surrounding scored the lowest, in which her withdrawn behavior has the T-Score of 64.
For the externalizing, Child A would be needing some intervention on her attention problem as
she is on the clinical range with the T-Score of 70 that only 1 % of the children have higher
indication on their behavior. However, as her aggressive behaviors are more to self-regulating
behaviors in which most children are still working on them, she is in the normal range. Overall,
with the externalizing behavior, she is still in the borderline with the T-Score of 69.
As her T-Score does show her position in a norm-referenced group with a score that
ranges from 0-100, it has affected the range of the percentile rank range where the T-Score of 69
and above elongates the percentile rank range of 98th – 100th (Clinical). With having both
standardized scores used in the graph, it does show the detailed position on which percentile rank
that the child will be at in scoring a T-Score. However, this detailed information is not reflected
with the two broad groupings and the total problem socio-emotional behaviors since there is only
the T-Score range for each raw score. As the borderline does mention the percentile rank of the
child’s position, we would need to know the other percentile rankings in order to know the
child’s specific position on a group.

RECOMMENDATION
From the interpretation above, it shows that Child A needs an intervention on her socio-
emotional. As it has been found that she has a problematic behavior on her internalizing
behavior, it is recommended that Child A needs to be receiving some intervention on her health
state as she would vomit and having headaches. For that, it is suggested for the child study team
to find a way in suppress the symptoms by first giving an explicit instruction on how to interact
with other children as it is stated in the form that she is shy. If this method works, this might
show that Child A is extremely nervous and having high anxiety in interacting with other
children. However, if that doesn’t work, the child study team might need to take another action
in consulting with a professional that would help in regulating Child A’s somatic complaints. As
for her externalizing behavior, it is recommended for the child study team in practicing some
cues and learning aid for Child A to retain her attention even more. If none of the above would
improve Child A’s socio-emotional behaviors, another examination might need to be conducted
in order to know whether Child A would need some special needs.
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LAB 5 REPORT: SCORING AND INTERPRETING STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENTS

REFLECTION
From doing this assignment, it has made me realized that it is important to choose the
standardized instruments that I completely familiar with including its terminology, structures,
applications, and interpretations. Moreover, I now know that incorporating a variety of
standardized instruments in interpreting data would be beneficial in order to understand the child
even more. I have learned to implement variety of standardized and non-standardized
instruments and techniques, as I have used anecdotal records, time sampling, and standardized
assessments in previous labs. Also, I have critically interpret and evaluate reports of formal
assessments, as I have linked the data to the norm-referenced group . Also, at the end, in writing
the “Recommendation” section, I am able to communicate assessment results to professionals
and parents/family members.
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LAB 5 REPORT: SCORING AND INTERPRETING STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENTS

APPENDIX I
CAREGIVER-TEACHER REPORT FORM FOR AGES 1 ½ - 5 (CTRF)