This tool represents a new standard in strength-based assessment that targets strengths, helps to form respectful alliances, identifies key connections in the ecology of the individual, clarifies coping behaviors leading to risk or resilience, and enlists the young person in the search for restorative solutions. The Development Audit is a fresh alternative to traditional deficit-based assessment.

The Audit is grounded in resilience science, neuroscience, and ecological research on positive youth development. Traditional assessments diagnose pathology and assign labels for disorders. But deficit-based approaches offer scant information about the function or purpose of behavior or the interventions that might produce growth and change. To understand behavior, it is necessary to focus on what Alfred Adler called the private logic and goals of a young person in conflict. Thus, the Developmental Audit views the youth as a primary data source and fully engages the individual in this reflective and restorative process.

Forming this positive alliance requires specific strategies to connect with the young person, clarify challenges, and restore bonds of respect. Problems are seen as evidence of conflict in the ecology of the family, school, peer group, and community. As a youth and adult explore key life events, they are able to identify how the youth copes with challenging behavior, both in resilient and self-defeating ways.

The Developmental Audit also scans available records and taps perspectives of other significant persons in the child’s life. The Audit presents this young person’s personal story and addresses these two key questions: How did this young person come to this point in his or her life? Where should we go from here to create a restorative outcome?

The Audit applies to a wide range of settings including regular and special education, juvenile justice, and prevention and treatment programs. Audits use universal principles which are relevant across types of problems, stages of development, and cultures.

The Audit is particularly useful for students with chronic or serious problems that put them at risk for removal from school or placement in restrictive settings. Schools in the U.S. are required to complete functional assessments when behavior problems may be a manifestation of disability, such as emotional disturbance.

Audits can be as expansive or as simple as time and circumstances allow. When used in life-altering proceedings, such as transfer of juvenile offenders to adult court, a very extensive Audit may be indicated. On the other hand, time efficient methods are particularly helpful in school settings or where limited assessment resources are available. The Audit can be used as a stand-alone assessment or in conjunction with other diagnostic and assessment tools.