Children's Organisational Skills Scales (COSS)

The COSS is designed to help the assessor understand how children organise their time, their materials, and their actions to accomplish important tasks at home and at school. The COSS quantifies organizational skills for children aged 8 to 13 based on ratings from parents, teachers, and the child.

The COSS is a comprehensive measure of organisational skills including:

• Assessment of a child's overall competence in managing task demands at home and school (i.e. domain specific)
• Delineation of a child's competence in planning tasks, tracking assignments, managing materials and time.
• Identification of a child's organisational strengths and weaknesses relative to the normative sample
• Assessment of the level of conflict at home related to a child's organisational problems.

How to Use the Assessment

Rating scales are available in parent, teacher, and self-report form formats. The COSS scales include Task Planning, Organises Actions, and Memory and Materials Management. An Inconsistency Index is available on all three forms. This index is useful for determining response patterns that can affect results due to careless/random responding.

The self-report form also contains a Positive Impression Index to help identify inaccurate representation of problems by making situations appear better than they really are.

Scales

Taks Planning

The ability to meet deadlines and to spell out steps need to complete tasks

Organisational Behaviour

Measures the competent use of aids (e.g. calendars and assignment records) and special routines (e.g.  creating rough drafts and lists).

Memory and Materials Management

Incorporates the skills of tracking assignments, recalling due dates, and managing papers, books, and other supplies.

Reports

Assessment Reports

Assessment Reports provide information about the child’s scores, how they compare to other children, and which scales are elevated.

• COSS–Child Sample Assessment Report
• COSS–Parent Sample Assessment Report
• COSS–Teacher Sample Assessment Report

Progress Reports

Progress Reports combine the results of up to four administrations from the same rater to summarize important changes in reported behavior that have occurred over time.

• COSS–Parent Sample Progress Report

Comparative Reports

Comparative Reports integrate ratings provided by child, parent and teacher respondents. The results from up to five different raters can be compared to summarise important similarities and differences in the raters’ perceptions of the child’s behavior.

• COSS Sample Comparative Report

COSS is available online only. Contact NZCER for further information.