CHAT-E: Childhood Assessment Tool-Electronic
The Childhood Assessment Tool—Electronic (CHAT-E) is an interactive tablet-based app designed to study young children’s perceptions. Developed by Dr. Terri Sabol and Andrea Busby of Northwestern University, the CHAT-E tool is adaptable to any research topic. The CHAT-E allows for cost-effective interviews, streamlined researcher training, high engagement among child participants, and greater overall accessibility than its predecessors.
The CHAT-E draws inspiration from the Berkeley Puppet Interview (BPI), a live puppet technique which engages young children in one-on-one conversations about their identity and environment (Measelle et al. 1998). The CHAT-E tool expands the study of young children’s perceptions by providing an engaging, electronic platform for a child-led, adult-assisted assessment. The CHAT-E is designed for children ages 3-8.
Our hope is that measuring children’s perceptions with the CHAT-E can propel the science of child development forward and provide important applications to early childhood policy.
Visit the CHAT-E website to learn more.
The Internet School Neighborhood Assessment Protocol (iSNAP)
We build on methodology of Candice C. Odgers and colleagues to more closely understand the relationship between early education outcomes and school neighborhoods. The iSNAP, developed in partnership with Dana C. McCoy and Emily C. Hanno at Harvard Graduate School of Education, is a guide for systemic social observation (SSO) of school grounds and their surrounding neighborhoods. Using Google Street View, coders virtually “walk” around a school, coding for developmentally relevant attributes within the direct school grounds and proximal neighborhood. These data are then aggregated into indices and scales, used to characterize the built environment in statistical models. The iSNAP can be used for detecting heterogeneity across implementation and effectiveness of education policies and programs.
The iSNAP User Guide, Codebook, and tutorial videos are available for download on the iSNAP website.
