Assessment of Preschool Children's Peer-Related Social Competence

Educators view preschool children's peer-related social competence as a fundamental developmental process. Nevertheless, effective assessment of social competence by teachers for planning peer-related social competence interventions appears to be noticeably lacking in many preschools. One reason for the infrequent use of effective assessment strategies may be that many early childhood educators are not as knowledgeable about methods for measuring peer-related social competence as they are with procedures for assessing other developmental areas (e.g., cognitive abilities, language skills). Given the limited use of social competence assessments by teachers, we briefly review three assessment strategies for preschool children and make recommendations concerning practical assessment of preschoolers' peer-related social competence.