SEAM™
Tool name
Social-Emotional Assessment/ Evaluation Measure (SEAM™), Research Edition
Use to evaluate
Children’s social-emotional development and parenting competence
Age range
2–66 months
Completed by
Early interventionists, early childhood educators, Head Start & Early Head Start staff, home visitors, parent educators, and mental health professionals
Time commitment
15–30 minutes (SEAM/SEAM with Ages)
10–15 minutes (Family Profile)
How can you develop effective goals for young children’s social and emotional development?
Use the SEAM™ assessment tool
The Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure (SEAM™) is a functional tool for assessing and monitoring social-emotional and behavioral development in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers at risk for social-emotional delays or problems. It can be used in tandem with screening instruments such as the Ages & Stages Questionnaires®: Social-Emotional, Second Edition (ASQ®:SE-2).
SEAM yields in-depth information on children’s social-emotional skills and deficits as well as their caregivers’ strengths and areas of need. It was developed to assist in the early identification of social-emotional difficulties and behavior disorders and to prevent problems by building positive partnerships with families and optimizing positive parent–child interactions in the first years of life. SEAM results can be used to develop high-quality and developmentally appropriate social-emotional goals and objectives for children and their families.
The SEAM includes three types of forms. The SEAM™ Tool to identify a child’s strengths, concerns for the family that need monitoring, and agreed-on focus areas. The SEAM with Ages is an alternate version of the SEAM form annotated with a helpful list of age ranges for each item. And the SEAM™ 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. Each form has three intervals with different developmental ranges: Infant (2–18 months), Toddler (18–36 months), and Preschool (36–66 months).
Benefits
- supports development of important social-emotional skills in order to minimize challenging behaviors
- builds strong, proactive partnerships with families
- promotes positive parent–child interactions in the critical first years of life
- assists with developing developmentally appropriate goals and intervention activities
- monitors child progress toward social-emotional goals
Developers
What You'll Need
Includes
Manual
CD-ROM with printable PDF forms in English and Spanish (SEAM, SEAM with Ages, Family Profile)
Free downloads
10 SEAM benchmarks
Use this tip sheet to help monitor child progress toward social-emotional goals. This handout contains ten benchmarks critical to social-emotional competence.
Using SEAM with families
SEAM assesses children’s social and emotional development, and can evaluate a caregiver’s readiness for providing ongoing support. But the tool’s success relies heavily on caregiver involvement and interest. Use these…
Introducing SEAM: Author Q&A
Learn more about the assessment that focuses exclusively on social-emotional and behavioral development in young children. Read this Q&A with the SEAM authors to learn more about the social-emotional assessment…
SEAM technical appendix
To confirm the utility and efficacy of SEAM, intensive research has been performed. Read more about the research behind SEAM in this technical appendix.
Sample SEAM social-emotional development items for preschoolers
Download this Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure (SEAM) sample form for a quick glance at the kinds of developmental milestones that SEAM assesses for children within the developmental range of 36–66 months.
SEAM parent summary form
Share this form with caregivers before reviewing SEAM results to help engage families in the process of identifying strengths, identifying areas to focus on, and sharing ideas and activities that…
Training and free webinars
Using the Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure (SEAM ™) with Young Children Webinar
Watch this webinar to learn how your program can use SEAM to reliably assess social-emotional development in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
Other languages
You might also be interested in
Ages & Stages Questionnaires®: Social-Emotional, Second Edition $295.00
ASQ®:SE-2
SEAM can be used as a next step after ASQ:SE-2 screening.
