Article: Measuring social competence in toddlers: Play Tools for Learning

2012

Social competence is an important foundation for school readiness. It is also a complicated developmental area encompassing the traditional domains of communication, cognition, and adaptive and social skills. Although much has been written about the importance of this area to children's development, effective models to guide both assessment and inventions are sorely lacking. This article presents a study to validate an assessment of social competence based on an integrated model of social performance theory and social informational processing theory as proposed by Guralnick (1990). This assessment, Play Tools for Learning, was designed to be implemented by early childhood teachers and address toddler-age children in group environments (e.g., childcare). Data on the administration 75 assessments using the Play Tools and the Battelle Developmental Inventory are presented. Analyses provide evidence for the psychometric soundness of Play Tools for Learning.

social competence, school readiness, early childhood, play tools, learning

Peer-reviewed publications in scholarly journals Published/In Press

Professionals, Students

http://uconnucedd.org/resourcecenter/professional_publications.html

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