Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP)

Posted on: March 11, 2015 | By: aschallhorn | Filed under: Hawaii Early Learning Profile

Descriptive Information

  1. Title and date of publication: Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP), first published in 1995
  2. Author : Unknown (VORT Corporation)
  3. Source: VORT (www.vort.com)
  4. Costs (booklets, forms, kit): According to the website, the HELP requires these kits/components for accurate family-centered, curriculum based assessment: Inside HELP($64.95), HELP Strands 0-3 ($3.50) or HELP Strands 0-3 Plus ($3.75), HELP at Home ($89.95) for a total of $158.40
  5. Purpose: HELP is a comprehensive, on-going, family centered curriculum based assessment process for infants and toddlers (ages 0-3) and their families. It is used when creating goals and tailoring developmentally-appropriate interventions to meet the specific needs of children.  Another source for further explanation states HELP is a flexible curriculum-based assessment tools that identify needs, monitor growth and development, and establish a plan to address assessment results. Play-based activities and intervention strategies are utilized to encourage, support, and facilitate a wide variety of developmental skills and address specific needs. The test examines 6 specific skill categories that are observed through play: cognitive, communication (expressive and receptive), gross motor, fine motor, social-emotional (how child relates to others), and adaptive/self-help (sleeping, eating, dressing, toileting, etc.).
  6. Type of Test: Evaluative assessment performed by observation in natural environment/multiple settings
  7. Target Population and Ages: Birth to 3 years (0-3)
  8. Time Requirements – Administration and Scoring: Implementation time varies. An initial direct assessment is 45 to 90 minutes; however, this assessment may be completed in 15 to 20 minutes. Another source states it is an ongoing observation summarized periodically.

Test Administration

  1. Administration: Observation in multiple settings
  2. Scoring: It is scored; Manual suggests approximate age-based levels of development in each strand or area based on the pattern of credit received on individual items in all areas except for regulatory/sensory organization. Number of atypical responses in the regulatory/sensory organization area can be used to cluster children into 3 groups (typical, over-reactive, or under-reactive), rather than associating skills with a specific developmental age range. Either giving credit for a skill (+), not giving credit (-), skill is atypical/dysfunctional (A), not appropriate (NA), hyper-responsive (A+), or hypo-responsive (A-). How this is all interpreted in the end is very vague in the resources found. Need to purchase manual and/or take a class to learn in-depth scoring analysis.
  3. Type of information, resulting from testing: There are no standardized scores. It is used for identifying needs, tracking growth and development, and determining ‘next steps’(target objectives).
  4. Environment for Testing: Multiple natural settings preferred
  5. Equipment and Materials Needed: Pen, HELP required items, toys/items in natural environment.
  6. Examiner Qualifications: One or more interdisciplinary pediatric/early childhood specialists (e.g., teacher, nurse, occupational therapist, physical therapist) that have taken a one-day course (offered through publisher’s website).
  7. Psychometric Characteristics: No research available to provide information.
  8. Standardization/normative data: None for test, however, skills and behaviors that are assessed in this assessment have normative data for age groups.
  9. Evidence of Reliability: Not available.
  10. Evidence of Validity: Not available.
  11. Discriminative: Unknown
  12. Predictive: Developmental age level
  • Summary Comments
    • Strengths: Monitoring progression of child by ongoing constantly assessing progress towards goals, involves parents and natural environment of family, very thorough tool seeing as it assesses over 600 skills/behaviors of a developing child.
    • Weaknesses: There is no peer-reviewed evidence to support its effectiveness, no inter-rater reliability provided even though multiple health professionals can provide this assessment to a child, costly and time consuming to administer, need to be trained to administer and very extensive grading/assessing.
    • Clinical Applications: It is used in early intervention situations of the atypically developing child. HELP also supports federal requirements for part C of IDEA and Early Head Start programs.

 

**No MCID available**No Research articles available using HELP as primary outcome measure, or as an ancillary outcome measure**

 

References:

  1. http://ectacenter.org/eco/assets/pdfs/help_birth-3_crosswalk1-27-06.pdf
  2. http://www.vort.com/HELP-0-3-years-Hawaii-Early-Learning-Profile/
  3. http://www.vort.com/supportFiles/HELP_0-3_Evidence_Based_Practices.pdf
  4. http://www.militaryfamilies.psu.edu/programs/help-hawaii-early-learning-profile
  5. http://keanyassociates.com/programs/hawaii-early-learning-profile
  6. http://hpcswf.com/downloads/HELP%20Training%20-%20Updated%2003232011.pdf

 

One response to “Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP)”

  1. thinesley says:

    This outcome measure seems similar to the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers, but HELP is for a younger age group compared to the MAP. I wonder if they would match up in what they are measuring and if they could be used in conduction or in continuation following aging out of the HELP? I also wonder if you could correlate the outcomes to percentiles based off of the expected normative values for this age range. I find it very frustrating that some of the outcome measures researched had limitations on information available unless you wanted to purchase the outcome measure for yourself.

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