# Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure (SEAM™), Research Edition

**Authors:** [Jane Squires Ph.D.](https://products.brookespublishing.com/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=2103&Name=Jane+Squires+Ph.D.), [Diane Bricker Ph.D.](https://products.brookespublishing.com/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=2023&Name=Diane+Bricker+Ph.D.), [Misti Waddell M.S.](https://products.brookespublishing.com/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=3807&Name=Misti+Waddell+M.S.), [Kristin Funk M.A., LCSW](https://products.brookespublishing.com/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=15044&Name=Kristin+Funk+M.A.%2c+LCSW), [Jantina Clifford Ph.D.](https://products.brookespublishing.com/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=3896&Name=Jantina+Clifford+Ph.D.), [Robert Hoselton](https://products.brookespublishing.com/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=3898&Name=Robert+Hoselton)

Early Childhood

The two-part SEAM™ assessment reveals detailed qualitative information on children’s social-emotional competence— _and_ identifies their caregivers’ strengths and areas of need.

|   |   |
|---|---|
| **STOCK NUMBER** | 72803 |
| **ISBN** | 978-1-59857-280-3 |
| **COPYRIGHT** | 2014 |
| **PAGES** | 46 |
| **AVAILABILITY** | Available Stock |

With this in-depth, easy-to-use tool, your program can reliably assess and monitor social-emotional development in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers at risk for delays or challenges. An ideal followup to screeners such as ASQ®:SE-2, the two-part SEAM™ assessment reveals detailed qualitative information on children’s social-emotional competence— _and_ identifies their caregivers’ strengths and areas of need. Easy to learn and implement, SEAM can be used by a wide variety of early childhood professionals, including those with little or no training in mental-health or behavioral interventions.

**SEAM helps your program:**

- support development of important social-emotional skills in order to minimize challenging behaviors
- build strong, proactive partnerships with families
- promote positive parent–child interactions in the critical first years of life
- assist with developing developmentally appropriate goals and intervention activities
- monitor child progress toward social-emotional goals

**SEAM is a two-part assessment; All forms are available in English and Spanish on the CD-ROM or e-book.**

_SEAM Tool_

The main SEAM includes three intervals with different developmental ranges: **Infant** (2–18 months), **Toddler** (18–36 months), and **Preschool** (36–66 months). Each interval assesses 10 child benchmarks critical to social-emotional competence, including empathy, adaptive skills, self-image, emotional responses, and healthy interactions with others.

SEAM is flexible enough to meet your specific needs—parents/caregivers can complete it independently, or you can conduct it jointly with them if they need extra guidance. The SEAM system also includes SEAM with Ages, an alternate version of the tool annotated with a helpful list of age ranges for each item. This version makes it easy to give caregivers general guidance on how social-emotional skills typically develop and where their child’s development fits on the continuum.

_SEAM Family Profile_

The Family Profile assesses parent and caregiver strengths and helps identify areas in which they need more supports and resources to foster their child’s social-emotional skills. Like the main SEAM, the Family Profile assessment includes three intervals—Infant, Toddler, and Preschool. Each interval measures four benchmarks key to a nurturing home environment: responding to needs, providing activities and play, providing predictable routines and an appropriate environment, and ensuring home safety.

**List of SEAM benchmarks**

01. Child participates in healthy interactions  
02. Child expresses a range of emotions  
03. Child regulates social-emotional responses  
04. Child begins to show empathy for others  
05. Child attends to and engages with others  
06. Child explores hands and feet and surroundings (for infants)/demonstrates independence (for toddlers/preschoolers)  
07. Child displays a positive self-image  
08. Child regulates activity level  
09. Child cooperates with daily routines and requests  
10. Child shows a range of adaptive skills

## Reviews

Randi Albertsen, Innovations in Education, LLC - January 9, 2014  
“SEAM offers many opportunities for providers or programs to develop workshops for caregivers to help model and support social-emotional development.”

Tracey Sparrow, Milwaukee Center for Independence - January 6, 2014  
“A wonderful tool for caregivers and professionals to use to identify a child’s developmental strengths and focus areas, in order to best support the family.”

Hiram Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief, Infant Mental Health Journal; University Distinguished Professor, Psychology, Michigan State University - January 6, 2014  
“Authentically reflects systems concepts, developmental transitions, and cultural contexts as foundational for understanding the dynamic processes and relationships of early childhood. Structuring the SEAM to be equally useful for home visitors, clinicians, and researchers sets a standard for applying the core values of translational science in the field of early childhood assessment.”

Renee Williams, Program Manager, Daybreak Parent Child Centre, Family Home Visitation Program - January 6, 2014  
“The SEAM tool will help our staff focus on the specific goals of families and help parents articulate their own strengths. The language used in the SEAM is solution-focused and strengths-based, and this is key to working with children and families.”

Judith Carta, Senior Scientist and Professor, Institute for Life-Span Studies/Department of Special Education, University of Kansas - January 6, 2014  
“An incredibly helpful resource to assist in the early identification and prevention of social-emotional difficulties in infants, toddlers and preschool children.”

**View the webinar recording of [Using the Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure (SEAM™) with Young Children](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlp68FHK67Y), presented by Jane Squires, Ph.D., and Misti Waddell, M.S.)**

**[See how this product helps strengthen Head Start program quality and school readiness.](/content/resource-library/brookes-publishings-head-start-alignment/index.html)