Parenting the Strong-Willed Child

Review by Hal Shigley, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist

Critical to the well being of children is their ability to successfully regulate their emotions and manage their social interactions in ways that are acceptable to themselves and others.  Children who manage their emotional and social behavior well are deemed competent, while those whose social or emotional behavior is inappropriate and unacceptable to others in their home or community are seen as troubled or “disabled”.  The early identification of social and emotional problems in infants, toddlers, and young children is essential if we are to assist them in building their emotional and social competence and reduce the likelihood of placement in special educational programs, and other restrictive settings in later life. 

Improved screening procedures that involve parents and caregivers should result in improved early identification procedures and more timely referral to intervention for children and families.  One economical and effective option for timely identification is to involve parents as first-level screeners for their young child’s development. 

(The Ages and Stages Questionnaires:  Social-Emotional (ASQ:SE)):  A parent completed, child monitoring system for social-emotional behaviors was developed by the authors of the broadly used (Ages and Stages Questionnaires), which is a screening tool for overall child development.  The broad-based ASQ questionnaires monitor a child’s progress in five key areas--communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem-solving, and personal-social skills.  The ASQ:SE was developed to complement the ASQ by providing information specifically addressing the social and emotional behavior of children ranging in age from three to sixty-six months.  Like the ASQ, the ASQ:SE is composed of a series of simple-to-complete questionnaires designed for use by a child’s parents or other primary caregivers.  The ASQ:SE is a screening tool that identifies infants and young children whose social or emotional development requires further evaluation to determine if referral for intervention services is necessary. 

Questions on the ASQ:SE are grouped into the areas of self-regulation, compliance, communication, adaptive behaviors, autonomy, affect, and interactions with people.  The ASQ:SE includes eight intervals covering the three to sixty-six month age span that can be used individually based on the child’s age, or as a series monitoring change in individual children.  Scoring options include most of the time, sometimes, rarely or never, and a column for parents/caregivers to check if the item is a concern.  Cutoff points were empirically derived based on ASQ:SE scores on more than three thousand questionnaires given prior to publishing the instrument.  Children whose scores are on or above the cutoff point should be considered for further evaluation or referred for services.  Those with scores below the cutoff point can be monitored using another ASQ:SE scale in six or twelve months.  The eight questionnaires are written at a fifth to sixth grade reading level and are designed to be completed in ten to fifteen minutes and scored by a professional in just one to three minutes.  The questionnaires can be administered at home, in a primary care clinic, or any other early childhood program or setting.  It is available in both English and Spanish.

Purchasers of the ASQ:SE are granted permission to photocopy the questionnaires as well as sample letters and forms that accompany the instrument.  The total cost of the ASQ:SE kit, including both English and Spanish versions, is $247.50.  It can be ordered from the Brookes Publishing Company at www.brookespublishing.com. 

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