Goal Attainment Scaling Applied to Early Intervention with Visually Impaired Children at CanDo4kids

This paper reports on the outcomes of a two year project which implemented and researched the effectiveness of Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) as a tool for measuring individual goal setting and attainment for children with a vision impairment aged from birth to 5 years of age. These children were early intervention clients of Cando4kids, a not-for-profit organization providing services to children and young adults who are deaf, blind or sensory impaired. Cando4kids sought a quantitative measure of the effectiveness of its early intervention services in the context of a family centered practice. The research design of this project employed both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in a pre- and post- GAS implementation design. Global assessment measures were used to establish baselines and the GAS scores used as a repeated measure throughout the course of the intervention. GAS has enabled detection of a statistically significant improvement from pre- to post- intervention outcomes within all three cohorts (Home, and Group and Home & Group) in the direction of the program goals. So there was a sufficient sensitivity to detect program outcome changes in individuals and within groups. However, we were unable to detect any interaction or main effect of intervention type across the three cohorts. The extensive pre- and post- interviews showed that parents as well as staff perceived GAS as an effective and functional evaluative tool that is “fit for purpose” within Cando4kids family-centered early intervention programs