The Ounce Scale
The Ounce Scale assesses children from 0-42 months in a collaborative model between professionals and parents/caregivers by providing an interactive system of documentation, monitoring, and evaluation of development. For Early Head Start programs, early intervention programs, and other home- and center-based childcare environments, Ounce evaluates children’s accomplishments, areas of difficulty, and approaches to learning to build relationships and capacity to thrive with a whole child view.Ready to order online subscriptions? You have two options:
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1572128380 - The Ounce Scale Subscription 1 Year Qty 1 (Digital) -- $14.00
The Ounce Scale is an ongoing, functional assessment for children from birth-42 months (i.e., 3 years, 6 months). It focuses the professional's attention on developmentally significant events in children's lives. It involves families in assessment and provides standards for infant and toddler behavior and development. Unlike other infant/toddler assessments, The Ounce Scale focuses on how children use skills in the context of their natural environment. Professionals and families work together to learn about the child's development in four basic domains: Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Cognitive Development, and Physical Development.
There are three main components of The Ounce Scale:
The Observation Record is a tool to help you keep track of observations and record children's growth and development. It is intended to be your record of factual observations that then help to determine ratings for the Developmental Profiles.
The Family Album is a keepsake or memory book in which the family can write down observations of their child's accomplishments and growth. It complements the Observation Record by matching the areas of development and observation questions contained in the professional's Observation Record. The Family Album involves parents as partners in the assessment process.
The Developmental Profile is a rating scale for measuring growth and development in comparison to age-level expectations. The profile is designed to give you and a child's family a summary of how their child is growing and developing. Ratings are made on the Developmental Profile using the observations from both the Observation Record and the Family Album to compare the child’s behaviors to the descriptions in the Standards for the Developmental Profiles.
Uses and Applications
The Ounce Scale can be used in assessment, intervention, and progress monitoring contexts. Professional users of this assessment may include home visitors, infant specialists, parent educators, family support staff, visiting nurses, public health nurses, and early interventionists.
Depending on the population(s) you serve, The Ounce Scale may be used with:
- Individuals — private practice, daycare, home settings
- Groups — educational, community, government, or healthcare group practices/programs (e.g., Early Head Start)
Benefits
- Presents a highly reliable, criterion-referenced measure based on specific developmental standards.
- Helps meet Early Head Start and federal assessment requirements.
- Allows you to gather information from multiple perspectives, giving a more well-rounded picture of the child’s development.
- Takes a natural, whole-child approach to observation.
- Helps educate parents so that they can become more involved in decisions about their children.
- Supports early intervention for at-risk kids.
Features
Designed for use with infants and toddlers, The Ounce Scale is organized around six major developmental areas:
- Personal connections: How children show they trust you.
- Feelings about self: How children express who they are.
- Relationships with other children: What children do around other children.
- Understanding and communicating: How children understand and communicate.
- Exploration and problem solving: How children explore and figure things out.
- Movement and coordination: How children move their bodies and use their hands to do things.
The Ounce Scale is divided into the following eight age levels:
- Babies I: Birth–4 months
- Babies II: 4–8 months
- Babies III: 8–12 months
- Babies IV: 12–18 months
- Toddlers I: 18–24 months
- Toddlers II: 24–30 months
- Toddlers III: 30–36 months
- Preschoolers: 36–42 months
Each age level has its own Observation Record, Family Album, and Developmental Profile, which you will use during that time period.
Required Browser Versions:
Windows 10, 11 - Chrome (v140), Firefox (v142) and Microsoft Edge (v140) (current and previous two versions)
Mac (latest version) - Chrome (v140), Firefox (v142) and Safari (v18.6) (current and previous two versions)
Resources
The following resources are available for the Ounce Scale.
The following training events are available for The Ounce Scale.
