Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood

The early identification and remediation of social and emotional disabilities is crucial for young children's immediate well-being and their long-term quality of life. To better identify young children with social and emotional delay and disability and ensure adequate program planning, professionals and families need information concerning available norm-referenced and qualitative measures. This article presents an analysis of existing norm-referenced measures of social and emotional competence and disability for young children birth-to-5 to determine the degree to which these indices satisfy both technical and conceptual requirements. It is recommended that methods for assessing social and emotional competence and disability that allow for informed clinical opinion supplement norm-referenced measures.