Important Trends

Products

CHILD Assessment

Applications for the following child assessment instruments include:

• Child Custody Evaluations

• Family Therapy

• Child and Adolescent Therapy

• Child Abuse/Neglect Assessment

PARENTING ASSESSMENT

Applications for the following parent assessment instruments include:

• Child Custody Evaluations

• Family Therapy

• Parenting Skills/Fitness Assessment (termination of parental rights)

• Assessment of others serving in or proposed to serve in a parental role (e.g., stepparent, grandparent)

Corroborative Sources Data

Applications for the following assessment instrument include:

• Child Custody Evaluations

• Child Abuse/Neglect Evaluations

• Information gathering from involved professionals or other informants (Physician, Teacher, Mental Health Professional, Other Corroborative Sources)

OTHER CHILD CUSTODY EVALUATION RESOURCES

All you need to know about the child custody evaluation process:

• How to conduct a custody evaluation from beginning to end. A comprehensive continuing education course that covers all aspects of a child custody evaluation

• How to administer various assessment instruments and collect interview data

• How to aggregate all of the data collected during a custody evaluation

• How to write a custody evaluation report

Continuing Education

BOOKS

About Us

Since 1982, Village Publishing has been offering the child custody and family/parenting tests and assessment instruments of two of the most well-known experts in the field of child custody. These tests and tools are, in their most critical areas, validated by neuroscience research, and especially by the research and thinking of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio on FEELINGS.

Research suggests that 95% of the choices, decisions and judgements of adults and children are more influenced by feelings than thoughts. People might have many thoughts about some particular choice, but the “select” button is a feeling. Every single thing we think, say, do, hear, write, desire, fear, create, learn, hate, decide, evaluate, remember, fantasize, plan, or dream of is obviously, or subtly, accompanied by a feeling. The way a child or adult FEELS about a choice, decision, or judgment is much more likely to be valid than what is said by that child or adult about the choice, decision, or judgment. This is true in any setting, and especially true in a forensic setting. [Click here to read the full article “Feelings and Emotions Are Not the Same Thing”]

While the tests and other instruments were originally designed for forensic use in child custody evaluations, they have found their way into more general use as their value in other settings involving people (married, divorced, unmarried) and their children became apparent. The assessment instruments provide information that is useful for a variety of applications, including:

• Screening and diagnosis for family counseling/psychotherapy

• Family counseling evaluations to assess differing parenting relationships, beliefs, and practices among parents or other caregivers

• Assessment of strengths and weaknesses in parenting skills

• Assessment of how a child perceives and values his or her interactions with each parent in many critical childcare areas, and the manner in which a child is forced to assume different ways of acting and feeling within different family systems (e.g., appeaser of dad’s anger and protector of mom)

• Monitoring the effectiveness and impact of therapeutic interventions through periodic re-administrations

• Termination of parental rights and parental fitness evaluations

• Assessment of a parent’s knowledge and understanding of a specific child in a wide variety of important life areas (interpersonal relationships, daily routine, health history, developmental history, school history, fears, personal hygiene, communication style)

• Child abuse/neglect evaluations

The instruments have been used by all types of mental health professionals (e.g., psychologists, clinical social workers, marriage counselors, school psychologists and counselors, psychiatrists, pastoral therapists, juvenile-offender counselors) who perform or plan to perform child, parent, or family assessments, or serve in the roles of child and family therapists or counselors.

Professional Resources

Upcoming contributions will include the latest in neuroscience, resilience, child custody, and psychotherapy. 

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