Comparison of Parent and Teacher Assessments of Developmentally Delayed Children's Behavior

Abstract

The extent of parent and teacher agreement on the assessment of developmentally delayed children's behavior was examined. Parents and teachers of 98 developmentally delayed children were asked to rate their child's abilities in areas of self-help skills, speech and language, and play skills, as well as indicate the presence or absence of 18 behavior problems. While significant levels of parent/teacher agreement were noted for 77% of the items assessed, the mean level of agreement was only 68.1%. This suggests that there was sufficient disagreement to cast suspicion upon the clinical utility of ratings by parents or teachers alone. Possible explanations for these findings are presented and implications regarding skill and behavioral assessment are discussed.