Module on Child Functioning – Teacher Version: A Comparative Evaluation
Historically, different definitions, methodologies and tools have been used to identify children with disabilities in population-level data collections, resulting in varying and unreliable estimates. To produce comparable and reliable statistics, UNICEF and the Washington Group (WG) on Disability Statistics developed the Child Functioning Module (CFM), which focuses on functional difficulties across domains of functioning. There are two versions: one for children aged 2–4 years with 16 questions, and one for children aged 5–17 years with 24 questions. The CFM was tested and validated with mothers or primary caregivers, based on the assumption that they possess comprehensive knowledge about their children and can provide consistent and valid responses. As schools increasingly provide data on educational experiences, UNICEF and the WG developed a teacher-administered version (CFM-TV). This paper describes validation results to determine whether teachers can provide valid information on children’s functional status.
