Life Skills Progression™

An Outcome and Intervention Planning Instrument for Use With Families at Risk, Second Edition

Authors: Linda Wollesen, M.A., RN, LMFT, Brad Richardson, Ph.D.

Early Childhood

A must for home visiting programs, the updated second edition of the LSP is the most efficient, reliable way to evaluate a parent’s life skills: the abilities, behaviors, and attitudes they need to achieve a healthy and satisfying family life. Easy to complete in about 10 minutes, the LSP will help your program establish baseline and ongoing assessment profiles of clients, identify strengths and needs, plan interventions, and demonstrate the effectiveness of your practices through monitoring of outcomes.

Contains Companion Materials

• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews
• Contributors
• Free Resources
• Companion Materials

A must for home visiting programs, the updated second edition of the LSP is the most efficient, reliable way to evaluate a parent’s life skills: the abilities, behaviors, and attitudes they need to achieve a healthy and satisfying family life. For use with at-risk, low-income pregnant and parenting individuals with children from birth to 5 years of age, the LSP is a field-tested, validated, and reliable tool that generates a broad, accurate portrait of the life skills of parents, caregivers, and young children. Easy to complete in about 10 minutes, the LSP will help your program establish baseline and ongoing assessment profiles of clients, identify strengths and needs, plan interventions, and demonstrate the effectiveness of your practices through monitoring of outcomes.

HOW IT WORKS

Home visitors, including public health nurses, social workers, mental health care providers, and family development and family support workers, use the LSP to evaluate a variety of important life skills. An experienced professional familiar with the family records information on 43 items in eight important domains:

• Relationships with Family and Friends
• Relationships with Children
• Relationships with Supportive Resources
• Education and Employment
• Health and Medical Care
• Mental Health and Substance Abuse
• Basic Essentials
• Infant/Toddler Development

Home visitors rate each competency from 1 to 5 on a simple-to-complete form, where they can also record important case data in the notes section. No judgment of families is implied—the LSP is used only to track the progress of children and parents or caregivers, and can be repeated every six months until the child is 5.

WHAT’S NEW

• New chapter on using the LSP to promote maternal health literacy
• Guidance on completing the LSP during virtual home visits
• LSP Instrument and downloads now provided as fillable PDFs
• Updated research, citations, and information throughout
• Updates and improvements based on customer surveys and feedback from the field
• Scoring descriptions updated for clarity
• Ancillary materials now provided as convenient downloads

Use the LSP with ASQ®-3 & ASQ®:SE-2!

With items that match the ASQ developmental areas, the LSP makes it easy to summarize the developmental data you gathered with the ASQ system.

Reviews

Angela Rau, Home Visiting Consultant and Coach; Co-editor of Coaching in Home Visiting; Former Director of Program Innovation and Professional Development, including National Model and Life Skills Progression trainer — May 31, 2024

"This engaging second edition, grounded in current research and best practices, is a must-have . . . Simplifying users' understanding of parents' life skills while emphasizing health literacy, the LSP focuses on the parent–family–home visitor triad. With the home visitor as a trusted partner and the parent as a self-directed learner, this partnership embodies hope in home visiting. The LSP informs, builds awareness, promotes practice, and uncovers capacities, boosting self-confidence."

Joanne Martin, Founding Director, The MOM Project; Former Director, HFA Indiana Training & Technical Assistance Project — May 29, 2024

"I wish every home visiting program would be using the LSP scale! I think it would improve practice, enhance the field, and ensure continued financial support to continue this important work. Mothers and babies, children and families deserve nothing less."

Dr. Jeremy Christopher Kohomban, The Children’s Village; President of Harlem Dowling — May 13, 2024

"An essential resource for family engagement and collaborative planning with families. [The authors] share a broad range of practical guidance that is a must-read for professionals committed to supporting and strengthening families."

Watch a webinar Introducing the Updated Life Skills Progression

Read a blog post Top 5 Reasons Why Your Home Visiting Program Needs the Updated LSP

Learn More LSP 2e At a Glance

Download a sample form Life Skills Progression, Second Edition, Sample Form

Download the alignment How Our Early Childhood Products Help Strengthen Head Start Program Quality and School Readiness

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