Evaluation of Social Interaction Skills (ESI)

The ESI is a dynamic observational instrument used by occupational therapists to evaluate a person's quality of social interaction during natural social exchanges with typical social partners. It can be used with any person of any age or without a disability where the person has difficulties with social interactions. It can be used alongside the AMPS to complement the identification of a person's level of motor, process and social interaction skill.

books on brown wooden shelf

The ESI is a tool that:

Can be used to evaluate people with any level of social interaction

Is standardised on people aged 2+ into older adulthood

Is based on criterion-based scoring and both criterion and norm-based interpretation

Is developed and stardised using Rasch measurement methods

Has strong evidence for internal scale validity and reliability

Can be used to answer the following questions:

What is the person's quality of social interactions? (Criterion-referenced interpretation)

How does the quality of this person's social interaction compare with healthy well people of the same age? (Norm-referenced interpretation)

Which social interaction performance skills are most impacting this person's occupational performance?

What is the best focus of planned intervention intended to improve quality of social interaction?

Has there been a change in the person's quality of social interaction performance since the last ESI evaluation?

In-Person Three Day Training Workshop

The workshop provides critical information related to the theoretical basis of the ESI as well as experiential learning of administering and scoring ESI evaluations. Participants obtain valuable, hands-on information regarding occupation-based assessment and intervention, as well as viewing and scoring videotaped and live ESI observations during the course.

Rater Calibration

Potential ESI raters are required to complete 10 live observations after the course and submit this data for rater calibration. Rater calibration allows each rater’s severity to be determined and whether or not they are scoring the ESI reliably.

Other important ESI information

The ESI is inappropriate for children younger than two years old

The ESI is only appropriate for people attempting to communicate

The ESI is not intended to evaluate the person-related or environmental factors that may be contributing to diminished quality of social interaction