Outcome measures

The Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA) and Mini-AHA describe how a child who presents with one hand that is more affected than the other or clear hand dominance from an early age,  uses their assisting hand during play.

The Mini-AHA can be used for children aged 8 to 18 months, and the AHA for children from 18 months to 18 years.

The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development are a standardised assessment tool used to evaluate developmental functioning in infants and young children.

The assessment provides information across key developmental domains, including cognitive, language, and motor development, within a structured and developmentally appropriate context.

The Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (BeeryVMI) is a standardised assessment used to evaluate the integration of visual perception and motor coordination (the ability to use your hands to do what they intend).

It provides information about a child’s ability to accurately copy increasingly complex forms, reflecting visual motor integration skills that underpin functional activities such as handwriting, drawing and tool use.

Both Hands Assessment (BOHA) looks at how children with cerebral palsy affecting both of their hands use their hands together during play and everyday tasks.

The Bruininks–Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2) is a standardised assessment used to evaluate fine and gross motor skills in children and young people. It assesses areas including fine motor precision and integration, manual dexterity, bilateral coordination, balance, strength, and agility.

The BOT-2 is used to support understanding of a child’s  motor skill development and functional performance. Results are interpreted in conjunction with clinical observations and other assessment findings.

The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) is a standardised assessment used to evaluate a child or young person’s receptive and expressive language skills.

The CELF includes a range of structures tasks that assess areas such as:

Understanding spoken language (receptive language)

Using vocabulary

Forming sentences and grammar

Recalling sentences and verbal information

Understanding relationships between words and concepts

Different subtests are combined to produce index scores and a core language score which provide an overview of a child’s overall language ability and help identify specific areas of difficulty. The results can be used to support diagnosis, intervention planning and monitoring prognosis.

Clinical Observations based on sensory integration theory involve specific play and movement activities to understand how your child’s body and brain respond to sensory information such as movement, balance, touch and body awareness.

Through these activities the therapist observes how your child moves, plans actions, uses both sides of their body, maintains positions/postures and how this affects their regulation through play. These observations help explain how sensory processing may be supporting or impacting your child’s ability to participate in every day activities, including play, learning and self care.

These observations do not involve a score, instead the information gained through these observations supports clinical reasoning about underlying sensory motor function and is considered alongside standardised assessments.  

Contextualised Language and Articulation Evaluation for Reading (CLEAR) is a tool used to assess a child’s speech sound production and intelligibility within connected speech.

Unlike single word articulation tests, the CLEAR assessment evaluates how clearly a child speaks when producing longer pieces of speech such as stories or sentences.

This allows therapists to observe how speech sounds are used in more natural communication contexts.

The assessment looks at:

• 1. Speech sound production 

• Patterns of speech sound errors 

• 2. Intelligibility in connected speech 

• 3. Consistency of errors 

• 4. Phonological processes affecting clarity 

Information from the CLEAR assessment helps Speech and Language Therapists understand how a child’s speech difficulties impact their everyday communication and supports planning targeted intervention.  

The Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM) is a standardised measure that looks at what a child’s gross motor skills, Including, rolling, sitting, standing and walking.

It is validated for children with cerebral palsy.  

The Gross Motor Function Classification Scales (GMFCS) is a tool used to describe how a child with cerebral palsy gets around day to day.

It has five levels (I to V) and it helps describe current and future physical abilities and expectations for support.  

Classification scales are useful as a shared language for professionals and families to support the description of how their child is functioning.  

The Hammersmith infant neurological examination (HINE) is a neurological assessment used with babies to look at things like posture, movement, reflexes and early motor patterns.

It can help us understand early development and flag when extra support might be helpful. 

The MACS and Mini MACS is a classification scale that looks at how a child with cerebral palsy uses their hands during every day activities such as  play, feeding and self care. 

The Mini MACS is used for children aged 1-4 and the MACS for older children.  

Classification scales are useful as a shared language for professionals and families to support the description of how their child is functioning. 

The Renfrew Action Picture Test (RAPT) is a standardised assessment used to evaluate a child’s expressive language, particularly their ability to describe actions and construct sentences. 

During the assessment the child is shown a series of pictures depicting everyday actions and is asked to describe what is happening.

Their responses are analysed to look at:

• Sentence structure and grammar 

• Use of verbs and vocabulary  

• Sentence length and complexity 

• Clarity and organisation of spoken language  

The test provides a structures way of examining how children formulate sentences and express ideas verbally. It is commonly used with younger children and can help identify difficulties with sentence construction, grammar or expressive language development.  

The Sensory Processing Measure (SPM-2) is a standardised assessment tool used to evaluate sensory processing, praxis, and social participation in individuals from infancy through to adulthood.

It provides information about how sensory processing differences may impact functional participation across everyday environments including home, school, and community settings.