What are the child mental health assessment scales?

At present, children's mental health assessment scales commonly used in clinical and educational settings in China are basically designed for different ages and different assessment directions, and there is no universal model. The core commonly used ones include the Achenback Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for screening comprehensive behavioral problems, the Connors Rating Scale for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the 0-3-year-old psychosocial ability screening scale for young infants, and the children's depression/anxiety screening scale for emotional problems.

I have been working in a child psychology clinic for nearly 6 years. Almost every day, parents come in and ask, "Can I prescribe the most comprehensive psychological scale for my child?" To be honest, every time, I have to explain it clearly to them first. The scale is not a physical examination package. What you choose depends entirely on the problem you want to solve. For example, the mother of the 7-year-old boy who came last week said that her child could not sit still in class, delayed homework until midnight, and always fought with classmates. We suspected ADHD, so we did not open the full scale. We only asked her and the class teacher to fill in the Connors Parent and Teacher Rating Scale respectively. Combined with 20 minutes of behavioral observation in the clinic, we quickly determined the tendency to be hyperactive. If we open a bunch of scales indiscriminately, it will not only be a waste of time, but also the child will easily resist.

For babies under 3 years old who cannot express themselves clearly, there is generally no need to ask parents to fill in a self-report scale that is too long. We often use the 0-3-year-old Infant Psychosocial Ability Screening Scale, combined with interactive observation in the clinic. For example, there was a 2 and a half year old baby before, and the parents said that he was unreasonable and could not speak. Fill out the scale to confirm There is indeed a social warning, but when we tease him with toys on the spot, he will actively interact with our eyes and hold his mother's hand to ask for help. The final investigation is that the elderly at home always let him watch cartoons and no one talks to him. The language development is delayed. This is not autism. If you only look at the scale score, you may have given the wrong label to the baby.

Of course, there is a lot of controversy over the use of children's psychological scales in the industry. In particular, many non-professional educational institutions and schools randomly use scales to conduct censuses for children of all grades. Last year, we encountered several parents who came for follow-up consultations with the school's "depression screening results" and said that their children were rated as high-risk for severe depression. As a result, we chatted with the children for more than half an hour and conducted professional structured interviews. We found that the children had just gotten into trouble with their classmates when filling out the scale and deliberately selected the negative options. They had no emotional problems at all. To put it bluntly, the scale itself is a tool. Whether it is useful or not depends on who uses it and how it is used. Ordinary parents should never find a scale on the Internet that has not been calibrated to localized norms and randomly test their children. Many so-called "child psychological tests" on the Internet are not even reliable and valid, and the test results are of no use except adding confusion.

If parents want to preliminarily judge their children's psychological development at home, they can actually use the "Children's Early Warning Sign Screening Form for Psychological and Behavioral Development Problems" issued by the National Health Commission. There are 3-5 simple questions for each age group, such as whether a 1-year-old can point to things, and whether a 4-year-old can play house with children. If more than 2 items meet the warning items, then go to a professional institution to see a doctor for evaluation. It is much more reliable than looking for a random scale on your own.