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Zeitschrift für Psychologie / Journal of PsychologyHogrefe & Huber Publishers F. Petermann & T. Macha: Developmental Assessment © 2008 2008; Vol. 216(3):127–134

Developmental Assessment
A General Framework
Franz Petermann and Thorsten Macha
Center for Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation, University of Bremen, Germany

Abstract. Developmental diagnostics has a long-standing tradition of more than 100 years and is closely connected with the assessment of children’s abilities, for instance, intelligence. It aims at providing differentiated analysis of developmental status, at contrasting normal and abnormal development, and at evaluating the potential for further development. Keywords: developmental assessment, developmental disorders, general development test, development test, special education

Introduction
Developmental diagnostics refers to the systematic assessment and integration of a person’s developmental characteristics. It aims at reliably describing developmental status and evaluating the potential for further development. Its theory, models, and research objectives are based on developmental psychology, clinical child psychology, developmental neurobiology, and child psychiatry. Psychometric developmental diagnostics focuses on differentiating between normal and abnormal development, and its tradition can be traced back to the early 20th century. Since then the methodological approach of developmental diagnostics has always been closely related to the conceptual framework that has dominated a particular era as well as its respective application in health care and social services. Developmental diagnostics pertains to both constant and time-variant conditions during a lifespan up to old age, while in practice the focus is on early childhood and school age. Still, by definition, developmental diagnostics are understood to form a scientific concept of assessing psychological changes and to devise measures and instruments for determining an