Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure ( SEAM)

Name: Jessica Marie Reynolds

Date of Birth: October 22, 2011

Date of Evaluation: April 1, 2015

Age: 3 years 5 months 9 days

Parent/Guardian: Tiffany Fortier

Address: 143 Quaker Drive
London, NH 03876

Phone Number: (603) 348-8779

Primary Language: English

Background Information
Jessica is an active 3 year old who lives with her mother, step father, and two younger brothers,
Jonathan and James. Jessica is currently enrolled in the Early Head Start program in her
community, but is transitioning to Head Start preschool in the upcoming months. She is excited
for preschool and is enjoying the visits to the preschool classroom. Jessica has not had any
identified medical conditions. As an infant Jessica had experienced physical abuse from her
biological father. Jessica has not had contact with her biological father since the incident, and her
step father is the only father figure in her life. Jessica is struggling to acknowledge her last name
is Reynolds, when the rest of her family members last name is Fortier. This has been difficult for
her mother to accept and discuss with her.
Results of Evaluation
The 36 to 66 month Social-Emotional Assessment/Evaluation Measure (SEAM) was used to
evaluate Jessicas social and emotional development. To gain a better insight into Jessicas social
and emotional development, her mother assisted in the preschool Family Profile questionnaire.
This portion of the SEAM allows for practitioners to understand the parental perspective of the
family, which can assist in ways to strength a childs development progress.
Jessica has many social and emotional strengths for a child of her age. Having two younger
brothers, Jessica is eager to assist her mother in feeding or changing the diapers of her brothers.
Mom allows her to watch the changing of the boys diapers, and encourages her to change her
baby dolls diapers. These caring characteristics have strengthened Jessicas ability of self help
skills, and helping others.
When new to situations Jessica is excited to try new things, and explore the many aspects of the
new environment. Her skills to adapt to new situations has been benefitting Jessicas process of
transitioning to preschool. The only time that transitions do not go well for Jessica is when she
sees her younger brother, Jonathan, crying. Although the situation will not typically upset her,
she will begin to feel anxious and upset when he does. Jessicas perceptive skills of others
emotions is very strong and she is able to identify emotions and will seek to comfort another.
An area of focus in Jessicas social emotional development is her ability to self regulate her body
in to match certain activities and calm herself when she is upset. Self regulating skills are

important for young children, because it allows children to remain in control of their bodies in
relation to others and activities that they are participating in. It is difficult for Jessica to control
her body in activities at home and in the classroom. Often times she will move her body quickly
and forcefully toward other people and objects. Mom said, She is not careful of her
surroundings. Sometimes resulting in others getting hurt or hurting herself. When Jessica
becomes upset it is difficult for her to calm her body down and discuss what is upsetting to her.
Another area of focus for Jessica is assisting her in completing a task even if she gets frustrated.
Many times when Jessica is playing and something is not working the way she would like, she
will say, I cant do it. No I do not want help. Mom mentioned that this can be challenging at
times, because she wants her to keep trying but when it gets difficult Jessica does not want to
play with the object or game again.
Mom mentioned that Jessica does many things spontaneously, which has the result of her getting
into dangerous situations. Crossing a parking lot and holding an adults hand is difficult for
Jessica, because she has the impulse to run to the car. Mom gets worried in moments like these,
because Jessica will act very quickly and has difficulty understanding when an action may be
dangerous. Then when an adult corrects Jessica for behaviors that are dangerous, she becomes
very upset and it can be challenging for her to understand the message.
Recommendations
When thinking about Jessicas growth of self regulation skills, it could be beneficial for her to
have concrete routines and structure to her home and school life. Transitioning to preschool
could assist in this structured environment, because Jessica will be able to learn the expectations
of her behaviors. Working with Jessica in the classroom and at home, it seems that sensory
activities allow her to calm her body down. However, when transitions occur it is difficult for her
to stop her body from her excited movements. Modeling behaviors but also allowing her to have
access to sensory supports could begin to help Jessica regulate her body more frequently.
To assist Jessica in overcoming challenges and the frustration of difficult tasks, it could be
beneficial for adults and peers to model what to do when something does not go as planned.
Jessica enjoys conversations with others, and having conversations and acknowledging her
feelings could then assist her in continuing with a tast even if it is difficult for her.