Developmental Audit™ offers a fresh alternative to traditional deficit based assessment. Professionals will learn how to engage the young person as a primary data source and full participant in this reflective and restorative process. The Audit teaches how to involve young persons who are in conflict to join in the process of solving problems and finding solutions, and is particularity relevant where youth are at risk for removal from school or placement in restrictive settings.

Why do we need Developmental Audit?

All children need opportunities for belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity, components of the Circle of Courage resilience model. When these growth needs are blocked, the youth is at risk. By addressing these universal needs, a young person is able to take pathways to responsibility.

Traditional assessments diagnose pathology and assign labels for disorders. But, deficit-based approaches offer scant information about the function (purpose) of behavior or the interventions that might produce growth and change. To understand behavior, we must focus on what Alfred Adler called the private logic and goals of a young person in conflict. Thus, the Developmental Audit; views the youth as a primary data source and fully engages the individual in this reflective and restorative process.

How does Developmental Audit work?

Forming this positive alliance requires specific strategies to CONNECT with the young person, CLARIFY challenges, and RESTORE bonds of respect. Problems are seen as evidence of conflict in the ecology of family, school, peer group, and community. As a youth and adult explore key life events, they are able to identify how the youth copes with challenging behavior, both in resilient and self-defeating ways.

The Developmental Audit; also scans available records and taps perspectives of other significant persons in the child's life. The Audit presents this young person's personal story and addresses these two key questions:

Audits can be as expansive or simple as time and circumstances allow. When used in life-altering proceedings, such as transfer of juvenile offenders to adult court, a very extensive Audit may be indicated. On the other hand, time efficient methods are particularly helpful in school settings or where limited assessment resources are available. The Audit can be used as a stand-alone assessment or in conjunction with other diagnostic and assessment tools.

Who should take Developmental Audit?

The Audit applies to a wide range of settings including regular and special education, juvenile justice, and prevention and treatment programs. Audits use universal principles which are relevant across types of problems, stages of development, and cultures.

The Audit is particularly useful for students with chronic or serious problems that put them at risk for removal from school or placement in restrictive settings. Schools in the U.S. are required to complete functional assessments when behavior problems may be a manifestation of disability, such as emotional disturbance. A model Audit produced for a mandated functional assessment is reproduced in the book Troubled Children and Youth.

Audits can be as expansive or simple as time and circumstances allow. When used in life-altering proceedings, such as transfer of juvenile offenders to adult court, a very extensive Audit may be indicated. On the other hand, time efficient methods are particularly helpful in school settings or where limited assessment resources are available. The Audit can be used as a stand-alone assessment or in conjunction with other diagnostic and assessment tools.

Field Testing and Research

The Developmental Audit process was field tested by Reclaiming Youth International with grant support from the W. K,. Kellogg Foundation. Audits were implemented in school settings in Michigan and South Dakota, in residential settings in Michigan, Illinois, South Africa, and Australia, and in justice settings in South Dakota. The Audit was featured in a CBS 60 Minutes II segment on CBS titled “Three Year Nightmare.”

The evidence base for this strength based approach to assessment and treatment was funded through grant support from the Starr Commonwealth to the Circle of Courage Institute and is summarized in the book Deep Brain Learning: Pathways to Potential with Challenging Youth by Drs Larry Brendtro, Martin Mitchell, and Herman McCall (2009). An earlier publication describing the Audit was Troubled Children and Youth by Larry Brendtro and Mary Shahbazian published by Research Press in 2004.

Course Outline

Seeking Solutions - Identify principles of evidence-based practice using the standard of consilience: Natural Science, Social Science, Practice Expertise, Ethics and Values.
Cultures of Discord - Determine how disruptions in the ecology of childhood (i.e, lack of connection, continuity, dignity, and opportunity) lead to specific pain based behaviors.
The Resilience Code - Synthesize knowledge from resilience science, cross-cultural research, and practice expertise to specify key factors leading to positive youth development.
The Brain Rules - Employ principles from neuroscience to provide a fresh perspective on how children cope with challenge and conflict in either adaptive or reactive ways.
Resilience Maps - Examine evidence from brain science and psychosocial research that indicates universal biosocial needs for attachment, achievement, autonomy, and altruism,
The Vital Balance - Apply emerging research to develop positive, developmentally based interventions for relationship trauma and a range of other childhood emotional and behavioral problems.
Audit Basics
• Discriminate between major theories of assessment which focus on a) behavioral dimensions, b) diagnostic categories, or c) developmental challenges.
• Apply different levels of assessment that address the needs for a) rapid action, b) formal growth plans, or c) in-depth assessment of high risk behavior.
• Analyze written behavioral descriptions to identify possible biases and distortions which compromise diagnosis and assessment processes.
Connecting
• Engage youth in the assessment process with strategies to replace adversarial encounters with a therapeutic alliance.
• Diagnose dynamics of distrust in youth as reflected in protective and reactive coping patterns of fight, flight, and fool.
• Complete ecological scans to identify interpersonal relationships of support or stress in the child’s life space of family, school, peer group, and community.
Clarifying
• Construct timelines of significant life events with the youth as a primary data source about the individual’s thinking (private logic), emotions, and behavior.
• Apply the CLEAR (Challenge/Logic/Emotion/Action/Result) problem solving process to identify how the youth copes in resilient or self-defeating ways.
• Decode nonverbal expressions of emotion to develop hypotheses about the function or goal of behavior.
Restoring
• Triangulate information from youth with other data sources to identify patterns of strengths as well as challenges and \ problems.
• Establish goals for healing and growth drawing on the Circle of Courage template of Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity.
• Integrate relevant information into a structured Developmental Audit report with specific strategies for restorative interventions.
Transforming
• Employ the best current evidence on positive youth development as a blueprint for transforming existing systems in education, justice, mental health, and staff development.
• Utilize a strength-based perspective to reframe specific problem behaviors into positive goals for growth in environments where all youth can thrive and flourish.

To schedule a training in your area, contact our preferred provider:
Reclaiming Youth International
Phone: 605 647-2532
Toll Free:1-888-647-2532
Email: seminars@reclaiming.com
Fax: 605 647-5212
Website: www.reclaiming.com

This course is available for college credit.

2010 Syllabus - Developmental Audit.pdf