Beware of "Simple Scales"

Beware of "Simple Scales"

After years of submitting to the rules and regulations of federally funded research fellowships and faculty appointments, it is wonderfully liberating to say what I think in this open venue. Blogging allows the freedom to express opinions; and as you may have noticed, I have a few. I sure have one about a recent report of the creation of a “simple mental health screening process” for pre-kindergartners. (Note: I have read only a summarizing report of the author’s enthusiastic endorsement of this “simple scale,” but, as I will explain, that’s enough to scare me.)

The author himself cautions that this new screening system “is not a diagnostic tool”; it merely identifies “problems that could be a precursor to a more serious disorder” (meaning, it also “could not” be): a very important proviso that undoubtedly will be generally overlooked. We busy human beings are so hungry for simple solutions that we are inclined to skip over the fine print and endow even the most limited tools with unwarranted authority. The best measurement tools we have in psychology (meaning the most valid and reliable) are certain IQ tests, but even an IQ score is predictive of very little besides academic performance. These are tests that have been fine-tuned for at least 100 years, and yet they continue to be controversial. We are inclined to put even less predictive faith in any tests when the “subjects” are those unpredictable creatures: preschoolers.

So along comes this cheerful announcement that there is a new system for screening preK kids by questioning their parents and teachers. It is described as screening for emotional, social, and language difficulties which are likely to impede future learning and could even be precursors to a “more serious disorder.”

There are a very few pronouncements made in my graduate training that have stayed with me to this day. One of them is that tests and screening instruments are not as accurate predictors of a child’s future academic performance as is his previous (or current) school performance. Certainly, this new screening instrument has in its favor the fact that teachers and parents provide the information sought. I was taught to listen closer to what teachers say about a child’s performance than to test scores in deciding things like school placement. And we know that parents know their kids better than anyone else or any test does. That is all reassuring.

My concern is that this or any instrument will be endowed with a predictive power it does not inherently deserve. We are told that all the tests of the test were reassuring; so far it has proven to have impressive predictive value. But it is still an arbitrary set of questions which may not be relevant in any number of individual situations.

We can’t turn over the responsibility for offering helpful intervention to the kids who seem to need it based solely or even primarily on any mental health screening device without a package warning: “Caution: This is only one possible indicator that a child may need unspecified psychological help to do reasonably well in school. No child should be defined by these or any other formal screening results alone.”

February 5, 2008

Comments

[Amy G]

There is a psychiatric / pharmaceutical plan to "suicide screen" every
child in the United States before they graduate from high school.
Evidence exists that shows massive pharmaceutical backing that will
result in even more overdrugging of kids with psychiatric drugs .

Can you take a moment to view this very short video? Click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY

And then sign and forward this petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html to your associates
and everyone you know? It already has over 24,700 signatures.

It's simply a race to inform enough parents so something can be done
about this.