After looking at why individual assessments are necessary (HERE) and getting a glimpse at how they should be approached (HERE), it is not unimportant to have a look at ‘who’. With ‘who’, I am not talking about who should be conducting the individual assessment, that was addressed in the ‘how’ blog. Rather we need to take a look at whom you need to get information from.
The way individual assessments tend to be talked about, makes it seem like it is just getting information from the child. However, this is not correct. You are gathering information ABOUT the child. It is absolutely very important to get the child’s perspective on as much of this as possible as well, but relying solely on what the child tells you, would not give you the whole picture.
With some of the practical questions, like date of birth and date of addmission to the institution etc, you do not need to bother the child, all of that should be available in his file. So that is a good starting point, to get some basic information.
If there is any way to contact the child’s family, this should be done. Even if it is already known that there is no way for the child to be reunited with his family for whatever reason, getting as much background information as possible about the child from the family is still very important.
Aside from this, you should also talk to the child’s caregivers, teachers and if relevant his doctors and social workers, because all of these people have important information about how the child functions in daily life. They can give essential information about the child’s strengths and talents, about his behaviour and about things he struggles with. The information from these people who know the child in daily life is also valuable because of their experience with the way he handles social situations and relationships. This is an area that the child might not be able to give you much information about himself, especially if he struggles in this area.
So, aside from it taking time to get as much information as you can out of the child, with the information needed from all these other sources, it is not hard to see that it would take more than an afternoon or a day to complete a single child’s individual assessment.
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