LSP At A Glance
At-A-Glance
| What it assesses | The Life Skills Progression™ measures a parent's life skills: the abilities, behaviors, and attitudes they need to achieve a healthy and satisfying family life. |
|---|---|
| Purposes | The LSP has multiple purposes: |
- Identify strengths and needs of families
- Track progress of parents' life skills
- Evaluate a home visiting program's effectiveness by monitoring outcomes |
| Components | LSP Manual
LSP Instrument (available as a fillable PDF)
Planning worksheets and checklists (available as fillable PDFs)
*All components sold together | | Age range | Children birth to five years and their parents | | Who conducts it | Professionals working with families in their homes (for example, home visitors, parent educators, public health nurses, social workers, and mental health care providers) | | When it is conducted | It is recommended that the initial LSP be completed after the home visitor's second visit. This allows the home visitor time to establish a more complete understanding of the family and their situation. Following this, the LSP is completed in 6-month increments and at the completion of services. | | Number of items | 43 scales assessed on a 1 to 5 Likert scale
Parental Scales - Relationships with Family and Friends (Scales 1-3)
- Relationships with Children (Scales 4-8)
- Relationships with Supportive Resources (Scales 9-11)
- Education and Employment (Scales 12-16)
- Health and Medical Care (Scales 17-23)
- Mental Health and Substance Use/Abuse (Scales 24-29)
- Basic Essentials (Scales 30-35)
Child Scales - Child Development (Scales 36-40)
- Emotional Development and Regulation (Scales 41-42)
- Breast Feeding (Scale 43) |
| Research | Since its inception in 1998, the LSP has undergone significant review, revision, and expansion by authors, collaborators, and expert reviewers in the field.
Content validity and reliability studies have been conducted. Chapter 4 in the LSP manual describes the development and field testing of the instrument. | | Time to complete | Approximately 10 minutes |
Sample item and responses
| Sample item and responses | Relationships with Children
Scale 5. Nurturing
- Hostile. Unable to nurture, bond or love child. Very limited responsiveness.
- Indifference. Apathy. Depression or DD impairs nurturing.
- Lacks information, modeling of love. Marginal connectedness. Afraid nurturing "spoils."
- Loves, responds inconsistently. Some reciprocal connections.
- Loving. Responsive. Praises. Regulates child well. Reciprocal connections.
Infant/Toddler Development
Scale 37. Gross Motor - Below AA/CA and EI criteria. Referred to EI. Not enrolled or attending.
- Delays; meets EI criteria. Referred; enrolled. Sometimes attends.
- Delays; meets EI criteria. Referred; enrolled. Attends regularly.
- No delays. Average development for AA or CA.
- Above average development for AA or CA. | | --- | --- | | Scores provided | Scores provided for all 43 individual scales. Each scale is scored across a range of 0 to 5 points, using 0.5-point increments. No total or average score provided. | | Training | To ensure high inter- and intrarater reliability, programs should train staff thoroughly in the use of the LSP. Each staff member should have access to the LSP Manual, particularly Chapter 5, which has detailed instructions for use and scoring.