The document discusses the use of a Life Skills Assessment Scale (LSAS) to measure outcomes of programs run by Dream A Dream (DaD), a non-profit organization in India. It describes the development of the LSAS, which involved defining life skills domains to measure, creating observational items, collecting data from over 1,200 children, and establishing the scale's reliability and validity. The LSAS provides a standardized way to quantify life skills development, evaluate program performance, compare different programs, and inform funding and program development decisions. Its publication in a peer-reviewed journal established it as a valid tool for measuring life skills in children experiencing adversity globally.

1. CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGISTS IN INDIA
Dr Fiona Kennedy
d rk e n n e d y @g re e n w o o d m e n to rs .c o m

4. CONTENT OF THE DAY
• Background information:
• Dream A Dream NGO
• The world’s children in adversity
• Psychological consequences of adversity
• Cultural factors
• The Mentoring Program
• Outcome measurement: developing the Life Skills Assessment Scale
(LSAS)
• Impact assessment using the LSAS
• Research using the LSAS
• Reflection and discussion on the potential roles of a clinical
psychologist and the effects on larger systems

5. THE BEGINNING
Meeting on a bus

6. DREAM A DREAM
A non- governmental
organisation
based in Bangalore
Uses sport, creative arts
and work-readiness
programmes
To increase the life
skills of children and young
people,
Which can help ameliorate
the effects of adversity.

7. ALL ABOUT DREAM A DREAM
Aim “enrichment”
Started 1998: CEO Vishal Talreja
In 2007 had 9 staff
Sports programs and creative arts
Delivered after school
Volunteers delivered a mentoring program

8. DREAM A DREAM TODAY
Aim: to enable every child to “thrive”
150 staff plus
Teacher development program
Consultancy to seven Indian states on education: the
“Happiness Program”
Volunteers for the mentoring program
Career Connect work readiness: 2 centres in
Bangalore
After School: creative arts and sports
Research

9. DREAM A DREAM TODAY
Volunteers for the mentoring program
Career Connect work readiness: 2 centres in
Bangalore
After School: creative arts and sports
Research commitment: outcome and process
evaluation
Awards: Prague, Helsinki (education 100) x2
Major influences: Partners for Youth
Empowerment (PYE) and us!

11. THREE DAYS BY THE LAKE
Children undersized
Children very determined
Leaders focused on pointing out errors
Circle up!
Lengthy evaluation forms

13. A VISIT FROM MPS
12 MPs from the UK
For a fun day
Questions they asked

15. CHILDREN FROM ADVERSITY
Childhood adversity has been described as the
experience of life events and circumstances
which may combine to threaten or challenge
healthy development.
Read and Bentall 2012
Poor nutrition, physical or sexual abuse, being in
a war zone, being displaced, institutional care,
inadequate or dysfunctional parenting, etc.
Climate change’s greatest impact is upon the
poor

16. HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION (HUNGAMA)
SURVEY
Released in India Jan 2012
42% of children under five in
India are underweight
59% show ‘stunted’ growth.
Manmohan Singh: ‘India’s
Shame’

17. CHILDREN FROM ADVERSITY
Global child poverty: 40 - 47 % survive on less than
$2 per day
India has 460 million children
Up to 59% of Indian children under 5 have stunted
growth (around 236 million)
This pattern is seen throughout the developing
world
Stunting and wasting can be caused by
malnutrition, neglect, or both

18. 59% FAILURE TO THRIVE
This shortness of stature is
known to indicate
developmental delay, or
‘failure to thrive’

19. Challenge
Adversity has profound
effects on child
development and
mental health.
1 in 4 of the world’s
children are stunted in
their growth

20. FAILURE TO THRIVE
Children normally grow in a pre-determined way as
measured on an appropriate growth chart
When child does not follow its pre-determined
growth pattern and this is known as ‘stunted
growth’
Diagnosis of failure to thrive: if the child is below
the 5th or 2nd centile, or has crossed major
centiles on a growth chart

21. GROWTH CHART

22. Failure to Thrive: Psychological consequences
Cognitive impairments Poor cognitive performance, memory
problems, school performance (not reaching
capacity), information processing problems
Attachment disorder type issues Relationship problems, developmental
collapse, confused emotions, avoidance,
confused abilities
Confused emotions, unable to self-soothe,
extreme emotions, age inappropriate
behaviours
Mental health Wide range including psychosis, high anxiety
levels, depression, self-harm, etc.
Emotional dysregulation
Neuropsychological Biological stress systems activate and may
not develop as appropriate
Changes in brain structure

23. CULTURAL FACTORS
Heavy emphasis on respect for
Authority
Elders
Parents
Older sibs
Social system officially secular, but underpinned
in Hindu world by caste system and religious
belief in karma and re-incarnation

24. CULTURAL FACTORS
It’s not OK to say no! Or I don’t know
It’s helpful to point out another’s error and correct
it
It’s not OK to be alone
Light skin is highly valued
Western anything: conflicting attitudes: signs of
colonialism + I want it
It’s important to display: wealth, achievements

25. INDIAN SOCIETY
Knowledge of mental health, therapy, and child
development very patchy
NGOs provide many services esp in the area of
mental health (The ‘Social Sector’)
Little interest from academics and from journalists
in children from adversity

26. INDIAN SOCIETY
Politics generally overtly corrupt
A few good guys
Legislation against abuse exists but is not
enforced
Police and workers are often short of money
Government schools are often appalling
Jails are to be avoided

27. SMALL GROUPS
Share your first impressions
What kinds of things might you think of
initiating if you were in a professional
consulting role?

29. OUR INVOLVEMENT
mentoring young people
using volunteers from local
companies
the mentor-mentee
relationship was prone to
breaking down.
Mentors struggled to
understand the behaviour
of young people in their
care
overwhelmed and confused,
mentees could not comply
with the mentors’ well-
intentioned demands, so
became passive or just did
not turn up.
mentors became
disillusioned and gave up.

30. CBT, DBT, ACT AND CFT
offer tools and methods to
train volunteers with no
mental health background
can improve the lives of young
people with severe
disadvantage in India
And can change the lives of
the volunteers as well
model has potential to help
promote the psychological
development of the 1 in 4
children globally with stunting

31. MENTORING TRAINING
Developing and delivering
training to staff from Dream A
Dream and volunteers for the
Mentoring Program
seven half-day sessions along
with homework (skills
practice).
the first half of each session
is devoted to explaining and
illustrating the journey from
adversity to mental health
problems.

33. THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING
Failure to thrive
Stunting
Consequences
Different Histories

34. The Dream Mentoring Manual

35. SENSITIVE PERIODS
Psychological development has sensitive or
critical periods, the time of maximum potential
for acquiring certain skills.
Failure to thrive can mean these periods go by
without the skills being acquired. Later ‘catch up’
is difficult.
E.g., a child who was abandoned at the time of
her life when she should have been acquiring
speech. Even if she were later adopted by a
caring family, it could take many years before she
could speak, while speech problems would also
continue in later life.

36. PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FAILURE
TO THRIVE
Sensitive
periods
Different
development
Cognitive, emotional
behavioural dysregulation
Attachment
Problems
Adversity

37. COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT
Low IQ
Attention problems
Understanding complex
instructions
Memory

38. EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS
Constant anxiety
Stress
Lack of self-soothing
Intense emotions

39. ATTACHMENT DISORDER
Flight
Attach

42. SKILLS DEVELOPMENT FOR MENTORS
To enable volunteers (mentors) with no mental health background to stay in a
relationship and use the relationship to enable healthy development and
healing
we chose:
acceptance (validation)
behaviour analysis (change)
skills sessions use modelling and role play
to teach mentors to manage the relationship, build an attachment and
empower the young person to solve problems.
ChangeAcceptance

43. ACCEPTANCE-VALIDATION
You are perfect just as you are
Active listening
Without judgment
Genuine acceptance

44. ACCEPTANCE
Validation
Nonjudgmental stance
Don’t solve the problem
Observe and describe,
participate

45. E.G
Your friend calls you for advice

46. Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS: UNDERSTANDING
BEHAVIOUR

47. FORMULATION (UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIOUR)
chain analysis
relationship/
system analysis √

49. CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT
how to use
the mentoring
relationship
to enable growth
Positive reinforcement
Punishment

50. REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
Peer supervision
sessions for all
mentors

51. How to make an ‘agreed
plan’
where does the mentee
want to take their life?
GOALS AND VALUES

52. OUTCOMES
After thirteen years,
3,000 mentors trained and
gone on to mentor
approximately 6,000
young people.
Many are now young
adults with jobs and
relationships, and an
ongoing connection with
the mentor that helped
them so significantly at a
time of transition.
One former mentee now runs
the program and the Career
Connect centres

53. Embedding mentoring into Indian further education
Universities
including
Bangalore
University,
Christ University
and Montfort
College in
Bangalore now
include mentor
training as part
of their
curriculum,
offering course
credits to
students for
training to be
mentors then
providing

54. INFLUENCES
Given the vast prevalence of
adversity and failure to thrive,
this type of targeted service,
using volunteers with no
mental health background
is an option we believe has
the potential to match the
challenges posed by the
sheer size of the problem.

55. INFLUENCES
The messages about failure to thrive
The need for positive reinforcement and
acceptance
The need for compassion for self and other
Have permeated all of Dream A Dream’s programs,
including their now flagship teacher
development program
Another major influence for Dream A Dream has
been PYE (Partners for Youth Empowerment), a
US charity which uses theatre and performance
arts to transform young people’s self-image and
relationships as well as help them become
themselves in the world

56. SMALL GROUPS
What do you think are the key factors that make
this intervention work?
How might you use a similar approach in your
own working context?

58. FIXING THE PROBLEMS
Interventions to address these
problems include the teaching of
‘life skills’ (World Health
Organisation 1997),
Social and self-regulation skills
Which it is hypothesised can
enhance development and
successful transition to adulthood.

59. Schools
Gap
Employ-
ability
Life
skills
Failure
to
Thrive

60. LIFE SKILLS PROGRAMMES
Mentoring
Sports
Computers
Creative Arts
etc

61. Get
skills
Receive
support
Get a
life

62. MEASURING OUTCOME
D R F I O N A K E N N E D Y A N D D R D A V I D P E A R S O N
W I T H M R V I S H A L T A L R E J A

64. THREE QUESTIONS
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO MEASURE?
HOW DO YOU PLAN TO USE THE RESULTS?
HOW DO YOU BUILD A MEASURE?

66. HOW TO MEASURE CLOTH

67. A GOOD RULER IS RELIABLE
• Should give the same length every time
it’s used (test-retest)
• Should give the same length when I use it
as when you use it (inter-rater)

68. A GOOD RULER DISCRIMINATES
Should tell the
difference between
a long and a short
piece of cloth
(discriminant
validity)

69. EVERY INCH MATTERS
Each inch should contribute to the ruler: if I take an
inch away from a ruler, that should make a
difference
(internal reliability)

70. AN INCH SHOULD BE AN INCH
The world over, we know
what is an inch:
somewhere in the
world is a ‘gold
standard’ inch!
(normative group)

71. FIRST STEPS
What do we want to measure?
Life Skills!

72. DO WE NEED
An observational measure?
A self report measure?
We decided on an observational
measure

73. STEP 2
Develop items for the scale
WHO definition of life skills
Create items describing behaviour that could
be observed

74. STEP 3
Narrow these down:
 interacting with others
 overcoming problems and solving
problems
 taking initiative
 managing conflict
 understanding and following instructions

75. STEP 4
Decide how to score the items
5-point scale:
1 (does not yet do),
2 (does with a lot of help)
3 (does with some help)
4 (does with a little help)
5 (does independently)
An overall score is calculated as the average (mean) of all five skill scores

76. STEP 5 COLLECT DATA
Between 2009 and 2010 DaD employee raters
completed the Life Skills Assessment Scale (LSAS)
observing 1232 children and young people aged 8-16 years
from at-risk communities in Bangalore
as they participated in group activities

77. STEP 6: A BASE FOR COMPARISON (NORMS)
This data was analysed to
produce normative scores
average score = 2.5
standard deviation = .75
for three age groups, 8-10 yrs,
11-13 yrs and 14-16

78. STEP 7: STATISTICS
The ruler:
Reliability and validity
OK? Yes!

79. THE LIFE SKILLS ASSESSMENT SCALE:
MEASURING LIFE SKILLS OF DISADVANTAGED
CHILDREN IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
KENNEDY, F., PEARSON, D., BRETT TAYLOR, L. & TALREJA, V.
(2014).
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY:
AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, 42 (2),
197-210.

80. HOORAY!
R E V I E W E D B Y
A C A D E M I C E X P E R T S
P U B L I S H E D I N
S C I E N T I F I C J O U R N A L

81. DISCUSSION
The statistical analysis indicates that
the scale can be used with
confidence.
It is a reliable and valid measure of life
skills

82. STEP 8
Get out there and use your scale!

83. BENEFITS OF SCALE USE
Accurate data
Quantitative data
Bio-feedback for your work
Allows evidence based practice
whilst you collect the evidence!

84. DO YOU WANT TO MEASURE LIFE SKILLS?
IF SO, THE LSAS AS A WORLD FIRST CAN DO
THIS FOR YOU!
THE FIRST SCALE TO RELIABLY AND
ACCURATELY MEASURE LIFE SKILLS IN
CHILDREN WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED
ADVERSITY IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
PUBLISHED IN AN INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC
JOURNAL

85. OUR STAKEHOLDERS
Donors - Make better informed decisions about funding
allocation and support
Programme developers - Check out programme
performance Programme deliverers – make sure every
programme is working; choose the right programme
for the young person
Carers - Keep track of the progress of young people in
their care
Young people – get feedback

86. WHAT THE LSAS CAN DO
FOR YOU

87. THE LSAS CAN
Measure the over all performance
of your programs

88. 0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
1 1.21.41.61.8 2 2.22.42.62.8 3 3.23.43.63.8 4 4.24.44.64.8 5
Participants
Score
Baseline Distribution
1 1.21.41.61.8 2 2.22.42.62.8 3 3.23.43.63.8 4 4.24.44.64.8 5
Endline Distribution

89. DAD ALL PROGRAM IMPACT 2013
1905 young people showed positive Life Skills development in one or more of the
five Life Skills Assessed.
3.145
2.915 3.008 2.848
3.26
3.749
3.421
3.621 3.439
3.804
Interaction
Score
Overcoming
difficulties
Taking Initiative Managing
Conflict
Understanding
& following
instructions
Baseline Endline

90. THE LSAS CAN
Measure the performance of each
program

91. 0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3
football 1
football2
football3
football4
football5

92. THE LSAS CAN
Be used to compare one program
with another

94. THE LSAS CAN
Help you discover which life
skills are improved by which
program

95. Mentoring:

96. THE LSAS CAN
Help you find out how long a
young person needs to attend
and how often, to benefit from
your programs

97. LENGTH OF TIME ENGAGED

98. LIFE SKILLS AND ATTENDANCE

99. THE LSAS CAN
Give you a life skills profile for
each young person

100. FOR EXAMPLE: RAVI
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
scores
scores

101. THE LSAS CAN
Help you see how each profile
compares with norms (expected
scores) for his/her peer group

102. 0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
interacting ovecoming initiative conflict instructions over all
scores
norms

103. ALLOCATING TO THE BEST PROGRAM
For example, you may know
That your football program is strong on developing the
managing conflict life skill
Young Ravi needs to develop his skills in this area
So you suggest he joins your football program

104. THE LSAS CAN
Measure individual progress

105. Ravi’s Progress
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
interac
ng
ovecom
ing
ini
a
ve
conflict
instruc
ons
overall
before
a er

106. FEEDBACK ON PROGRESS
As well as using this scale to measure your own life skills
impact,
you can also prepare any or all of the above reports to feed
back to stakeholders of every sort

107. BENEFITS OF SCALE USE
Accurate data
Quantitative data
Bio-feedback for your work
Allows evidence based practice
whilst you collect the evidence!

108. SMALL GROUPS
What have you learned about measurement and
scale development in the context of a real-world
setting?
What factors do you think were important to make
this work?
Do you feel this is something that would excite
you to be involved in?

110. WHAT IS THE QUESTION?
Do After Schools Life Skills
Programs Work?

111. WHAT IS THE PLAN?
Conduct a Pragmatic Controlled trial
Program Group receives 25 weeks ASLS
Control receives nothing new apart from 2 fun
days to assess Life Skills
Compare results for LSAS before and after for
each group

112. WHAT IS THE PLAN?
Collect Data for X numbers of young people
Program group
1: 8-10 years 150 or more
2: 11-13 years 150 or mre
3: 14-16 150 or more
Control Group
1: 8-10 years 150 or more
2: 11-13 years 150 or mre
3: 14-16 150 or more

113. WHAT MIGHT GO WRONG WITH THIS PLAN?
What other things could affect the scores,
apart from whether or not young people
have received ASLS program?

114. EXCLUSIONS
Exclude (don’t measure) young people who have
already received programs

115. WHAT DID WE DO?
Collected LSAS scores for young people in
ASLSP
Collected LSAS scores from school not in
ASLSP

116. WHAT WENT WELL?
Collected plenty of data
Put loads of effort into designing fun days
Put loads of effort into collecting control group
data

117. WHAT WENT NOT SO WELL?
Data was not collected for the three age groups as
planned
Data was not matched for age and gender
Uneven numbers in program and control groups
meant we could not use the statistics we
planned to use

118. Female Male n
program
409 500 909
control
166 169 335
n 575 669 N=1244

119. AND SO
We pooled all the data and decided we could
report on 8-15 years old as one group
We found a new statistic that could handle uneven
groups (ANCOVA)

120. Program group Control group
LSAS item Baseline Endline Baseline Endline
Interacting
with others
2.12 3.84 1.69 1.69
Overcoming
difficulties
1.84 3.55 1.65 1.68
Taking
initiative
2.01 3.71 1.69 1.63
Managing
conflict
1.78 3.48 1.65 1.63
Understandin
g/following
instructions
2.05 3.88 1.81 1.65
Overall
average
score
2.05 3.69 1.70 1.66

121. RESULTS
ANCOVA shows significant difference between
groups (experimental and control) on post-test
average score, controlling for pre-test scores.
Effect size: 56% of the variance in the post-test
average scores are accounted for by the group.

122. Results for After Schools Life Skills Programme Pragmatic
Controlled Trial 2020

125. WHAT IS THE QUESTION?
Does The Career Connect 25 day
work-readiness program increase
life skills?

126. WHAT IS THE PLAN?
Participants:
Two groups of people aged between 17-19 years and 20-22 years.
150 or more young people for each age group,
Control group:
150 or more young people for each age group. These people
wait for one cycle before going onto the program. This means that the
‘waiting list’ become the control group.
(practically speaking, this means for each young person who walks
through the door of career connect who has not done any other
program, all get a baseline then half, say every alternate one, go
immediately onto a program. The other half wait for one cycle and then
go onto the program

127. WHAT MIGHT GO WRONG WITH THIS PLAN?
What other things could affect the scores, apart from
whether or not young people have received the CC
program?

128. EXCLUSIONS
Exclude (don’t measure) young people who have already
received programs

129. WHAT DID WE DO?
Collected LSAS scores for young people in CC
when they arrived
Allocated half to the program group and half to a
waiting list (control) group
Looked at before and after LSAS scores for each
group

130. WHAT WENT WELL?
Collected plenty of data
Got roughly same numbers in each group

131. Total group Control
group
Experiment
al group
Total
participants
645 (401 F;
244 M)
312 (194 F;
118 M)
333 (207 F;
126 M)
Mean age
(SD):
18.77 (1.670 18.73
(1.672)
18.81 (1.670
Pre-
intervention
mean (SD):
2.57 (.571) 2.56 (.479)
Post-
intervention
mean (SD):
2.30 (.501) 3.50 (.535)

132. RESULTS
ANCOVA shows significant difference between
groups (experimental and control) on post-test
average score, controlling for pre-test scores.
Effect size: 64% of the variance in the post-test
average scores are accounted for by the group.

133. 3
186
90
7
16
192
78
0
50
100
150
200
1 2 3 4
Noofparticipants
Scores
Treatment Group-Career Connect
Baseline Endline
2-3 3-4 4-5
Life Skills RCT of 21 day program:
Experimental group significant change
1-2
N=333

134. 1
137
68
8
0
50
100
150
200
1 2 3 4
Noofparticipants
Scores
Control Group-Career Connect
Baseline Endline
1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5
159
17
33
Control group scores: no change
N=312

137. LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
The Happiness Program
Teacher development:
personal transformation,
validation,
positive reinforcement
For children in school:
10 mins off each lesson
Daily mindfulness practice and story telling, with interactive feedback
Political/policy change: Dream A Dream consulting in:
New Delhi
Kenya
5 other Indian states
Karnataka this year

139. SMALL GROUPS
• What have you learned about how
clinical psychologists can function in
systems?
• What are the implications for you
personally?

140. SUMMARY
What have we taken away from today?
What is your plan to go forward?

141. EVALUATION
Thank you and goodbye!
drkennedy@greenwoodmentors.
com