Social and emotional functioning can both positively and negatively impact education and life outcomes. Assessing social emotional and adaptive behaviors can aid in identification of problems, disability classification and intervention planning.
The appropriateness of social and emotional behaviors, both adaptive and maladaptive, depend on: societal expectations, age of the child, setting in which the behavior occurs, and the frequency, duration and intensity of the behavior.
Students may internalize or externalize behaviors.
Problematic behaviors can be due to acquisition deficits or performance deficits. Students can have skills but fail to implement them in certain situations and/or they can be lacking in skill development.
Assessments consist of one or a combination of the following: observational procedures, interview techniques, situational measures- peer (for example: acceptance nomination scales and sociometric ranking techniques) and rating scales.
This website describes 3 common assessments of social and emotional skills and both adaptive and maladaptive behaviors.