McREL and Gesell Institute collaborate on technical study of child development tool

The Challenge

For decades, preschool and kindergarten programs have used the Gesell Developmental Observation (GDO) tool to determine a child’s stage of development. Although the GDO has been studied and revised several times over the years, recent demand for scientific validation has sparked the need for a 21st-century update that documents its validity and reliability.

Strategic Solution

The Gesell Institute partnered with McREL in 2008 for a two-year technical study to provide evidence of the GDO’s validity and reliability. It has been a true collaborative effort that draws on both partners’ strengths: Gesell manages the recruitment, test administration, and data collection, and McREL handles the database, psychometric analyses, and technical consulting.

As part of the study, the team is piloting new items developed in partnership with McREL that focus on the whole child (including cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and adaptive areas of development). The new items will be used—along with tried-and-true Gesell items—in a new, more comprehensive instrument.

Results

Evidence of validity and reliability is being collected, so administrators of the updated GDO will have greater confidence in the child development scores. The new GDO will also provide insight into which items, at different ages, children are getting right and wrong and how subgroups perform. The new child-development instrument will be easier to administer and score. It will also be easier for administrators to interpret scores, allowing the tool to be used on a wider scale.

Next Steps

The results of the data collection and analysis will be used by the Gesell team to produce a GDO technical manual, which will be distributed to early childhood educators nationwide.