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Striking a Positive Note with the PICCOLO
Author(s) -
ChazanCohen Rachel
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
infant mental health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1097-0355
pISSN - 0163-9641
DOI - 10.1002/imhj.21392
Subject(s) - checklist , psychological intervention , psychology , observational study , measure (data warehouse) , accountability , plan (archaeology) , curriculum , developmental psychology , intervention (counseling) , medical education , applied psychology , pedagogy , medicine , computer science , political science , archaeology , pathology , database , psychiatry , law , cognitive psychology , history
The Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO) fills a critical need for an easy‐to‐administer and easy‐to‐score measure of parenting that requires minimal training to administer. Despite wide agreement about the importance of parenting, few programs assess parenting behaviors; rather, there is a focus on child outcomes in curriculum planning, program improvement efforts, and accountability activities. In large part, this is due to the very few observational assessments of adult–child interactions that can be used without major investments of time and resources. Given the adage “what gets measured is treasured,” this leaves parenting out of many policy and practice discussions. The new PICCOLO measure has the potential to add to the growing arsenal that early childhood programs have to assess the children and families whom they serve. The measure can help programs to assess parenting strengths, plan effective interventions, and monitor the effectiveness of those interventions. The developers of the measure are to be applauded for their thoughtful approach to creating the items in the measure and to their careful examination of the measure's psychometric qualities.