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      Find the Hidden Object. Understanding Play in Psychological Assessments

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          Abstract

          Standardized psychological assessments are extensively used by practitioners to determine rate and level of development in different domains of ability in both typical and atypical children. The younger the children, the more likely the trials will resemble play activities. However, mode of administration, timing and use of objects involved are constrained. The purpose of this study is to explore what kind of play is play in psychological assessments, what are the expectations about children's performance and what are the abilities supporting the test activities. Conversation Analysis (CA) was applied to the videorecording of an interaction between a child and a practitioner during the administration of the Bayley Scale of Infant and Toddler Development, III edition. The analysis focuses on a 2′07″ long sequence relative to the administration of the test item “Find the hidden object” to a 23 months old child with Down syndrome. The analysis of the sequence shows that the assessor promotes the child's engagement by couching the actions required to administer the item in utterances with marked child-directed features. The analysis also shows that the objects constituting the test item did not suggest to the child a unique course of action, leading to the assessor's modeling of the successful sequence. We argue that when a play frame is activated by an interactional partner, the relational aspect of the activity is foregrounded and the co-player becomes a source of cues for ways in which playing can develop. We discuss the assessment interaction as orienting the child toward a right-or-wrong interpretation, leaving the realm of play, which is inherently exploratory and inventive, to enter that of instructional activities. Finally, we argue that the sequential analysis of the interaction and of the mutual sense-making procedures that partners put in place during the administration of an assessment could be used in the design and evaluation of tests for a finer understanding of the abilities involved.

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          Studies in ethnomethodology

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            Behavioral phenotype of individuals with Down syndrome.

            Evidence is reviewed for a developmentally-emerging behavioral phenotype in individuals with Down syndrome that includes significant delay in nonverbal cognitive development accompanied by additional, specific deficits in speech, language production, and auditory short-term memory in infancy and childhood, but fewer adaptive behavior problems than individuals with other cognitive disabilities. Evidence of dementia emerges for up to half the individuals studied after age 50. Research issues affecting control group selection in establishing phenotypic characteristics are discussed, as well as the possible genetic mechanisms underlying variation in general cognitive delay, specific language impairment, and adult dementia. MRDD Research Reviews 2000;6:84-95. Wiley-Liss, Inc.
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              Test Review: Bayley, N. (2006). Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development- Third Edition. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Psychol
                Front Psychol
                Front. Psychol.
                Frontiers in Psychology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-1078
                24 March 2017
                2017
                : 8
                : 323
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth Portsmouth, UK
                [2] 2Autism Interventionist Mumbai, India
                [3] 3Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth Portsmouth, UK
                Author notes

                Edited by: Silvia Salcuni, University of Padua, Italy

                Reviewed by: Claudio Longobardi, University of Turin, Italy; Francesca Locati, University of Padua, Italy

                *Correspondence: Alessandra Fasulo alessandra.fasulo@ 123456port.ac.uk

                This article was submitted to Psychology for Clinical Settings, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

                Article
                10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00323
                5364837
                cadc7752-c3df-44c7-a14d-7aa4bcbd211c
                Copyright © 2017 Fasulo, Shukla and Bennett.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 31 October 2016
                : 20 February 2017
                Page count
                Figures: 0, Tables: 5, Equations: 0, References: 52, Pages: 12, Words: 10144
                Categories
                Psychology
                Original Research

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                play,psychological assessments,down syndrome,conversation analysis,learning disability

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