Scale Description

The Skills Assessment Scale for Children Aged 5–6 Years is an assessment instrument designed to evaluate fundamental developmental skills and selected aspects of behaviour in preschool-aged children. The scale is based on the work of Desforges and Lindsay and was adapted for use with the Greek population by A. Maridaki-Kassotaki and M. Ralli.

The instrument focuses on competencies considered important for children’s developmental progress and their transition from preschool to primary education. Through systematic observation of a child’s performance, it provides a broad profile of strengths and possible areas requiring additional educational support.

The broader Infant Rating Scale tradition has been investigated as an approach for the early identification of children who may experience subsequent learning difficulties.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the scale is to assess key developmental skills in children aged 5 to 6 years and to identify areas in which a child demonstrates either well-developed abilities or possible developmental and educational needs.

The instrument may contribute to the assessment of school readiness, monitoring of developmental progress, and early recognition of difficulties that could potentially influence later academic adjustment.

Structure of the Scale

The scale contains 20 assessment criteria, organised into five major developmental domains:

Language skills, referring to the child’s understanding and use of language.

Mathematical skills, concerning fundamental numerical and quantitative concepts.

Social skills, assessing aspects of interpersonal interaction and social adjustment.

Motor skills, referring to elements of motor development and coordination.

Independent learning skills, assessing the extent to which the child can engage autonomously in learning-related activities.

Each criterion consists of four progressively more demanding activities or performance levels, arranged from the easiest to the most difficult.

Administration

The assessment is generally completed by an educator, particularly a preschool teacher, on the basis of systematic observation of the child’s behaviour and performance.

For each criterion, the evaluator determines the highest level of performance that accurately reflects the child’s demonstrated abilities. Consequently, the assessment is based on the child’s broader functioning within the educational setting rather than on performance during a single isolated task.

The assessment may also be accompanied by background information, including the child’s sex and age, parental occupation, and relevant health-related information.

Scoring

Each of the 20 criteria is scored from 0 to 4 points.

The score reflects the number or level of activities that the preschool teacher considers the child capable of performing successfully. A score of 0 is assigned when the child is unable to perform any of the activities included within a particular criterion.

The total score can therefore range from 0 to 80 points, with higher scores generally indicating a higher overall level of development in the skills being assessed.

Scores may be examined at three levels: individual criterion scores, developmental-domain scores, and an overall scale score.

Results should not be interpreted solely on the basis of the total score, as a child may perform particularly well in one developmental domain while showing comparatively lower performance in another.

Greek Standardisation Sample

The Greek standardisation study involved 533 preschool children, including 263 boys and 270 girls.

Participants were recruited from 36 kindergartens located in different geographical regions of Greece, including Attica, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, the Aegean islands and Crete.

The children’s mean age was 68.83 months, with a standard deviation of 3.18 months.

Reliability

The reliability of the Greek adaptation was examined using, among other procedures, a test–retest approach. The correlation between repeated measurements for the overall scale was approximately 0.98, indicating very high temporal stability.

Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha, with coefficients for the individual criteria reported to range approximately from 0.58 to 0.87. These findings provide support for the reliability of the adapted instrument, although the level of internal consistency varies across specific components of the scale.

Validity and Applications

Assessment of developmental skills during the preschool period can contribute to the early identification of children who may encounter difficulties when entering formal schooling.

The Infant Rating Scale, on which this assessment tradition is based, has been studied in relation to its structure, reliability and predictive validity and has been described as a useful aid for teachers in the early recognition of potential learning difficulties.

The scale should not be interpreted as a stand-alone diagnostic instrument. Instead, it is best used as part of a broader developmental and educational assessment that may incorporate teacher observations, developmental history and additional standardised assessment procedures where appropriate.

References

Desforges, M., & Lindsay, G. A. (1995). Infant Index. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Lindsay, G. A. (1980). The Infant Rating Scale. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 50(2), 97–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1980.tb02435.x

Ralli, A. M., Tsaousi, D., & Maridaki-Kassotaki, A. (2013). The predictive validity of the Preschool Children’s Skills Assessment Scale. Researching the World of the Child, 12, 50–64.