Training Courses

GMDS COURSE INFORMATION SHEET and AIMS of COURSE

A five day intensive training course for Paediatricians & Psychologists which offers demonstrations, videos/ DVDs and lectures/discussions to cover the issues involved in the administration, reporting and use of both the Baby [revised 0-2] and Extended [revised 2-8] for assessing mental development in infants and young children.

*The Ruth Griffiths Scales are viewed as an enabling system to precisely:

  1. observe the nature of the interactions of children with their environment.
  2. track the emergence of the developing functions into differentiated specialised skills and their organisational patterns leading to the ability to control, direct, and modify through the interactive behaviour/performance patterns which, incidentally, also reveal their underlying neuro-motor function.
  3. evaluate the whole individual mental development and in its profile manifestations

*Observation/testing of the child’s behaviour/performance is presented as an attempt to evaluate the infant’s/child’s interactive within a normative framework of reference, and participants are reminded that they and the infant/child they are observing have similar interactive processing systems.

The aim of the course is threefold:

  1. introduce the work of Ruth Griffiths and the psychological basis of mental measurement/
  2. demonstrate and teach the testing procedures required to achieve reliability.
  3. to evaluate the level of proficiency in the user of the scales. To this end each participant is given at least 4 practice sessions with both babies and children, and is expected to present at least 2 written reports. There are also some short test papers and practical exercises on test material usage.

Books required during the course:
GMDS-ER 2006 Administration Manual
GMDS-ER 2006 Analysis Manual
GMDS from birth to 2 years - 1996 revision Manual

Books recommended as Pre-Course Reader:
Testing Children - A practitioner’s guide to the Assessment of Mental Development in Infants and Young Children. P. Preston 2006: ISBN 0-88937-296-9, Publishers: Hogrefe.

Books of historical/research interest:
The Abilities of Babies. R. Griffiths, 1954.
The Abilities of Young Children. R. Griffiths, 1967.
All books, test material, and kits are available from Hogrefe Oxford (Test Agency), Tel: 01865 402 900.

Hand out notes and homework tasks: These are at the discretion of the tutors.

Successful candidates are awarded the ARICD CERTIFICATE OF COMPETENCE DEMANDED BY THE ARICD. The GMDS are a closed test available only to certified users. Course carries CPD points for Paediatricians.  Course counts as CPD entry for Psychologists.  Only Registered Users may purchase the Equipment.  Therapists may be trained on Courses if approved ad personam by the Training Sub-Committee and working in a University-attached department under the supervision of an accredited Griffiths Users (paediatrician or psychologist) but not for the purpose of independent practice.