ABSTRACT
Goal attainment scaling (GAS) is an individualized, evaluative outcome measurement tool that rates the extent to which goals are attained. It can be used to evaluate change in a child’s and/or family’s functioning in paediatric rehabilitation. GAS was first introduced in the United States in mental health care in 1968 (Kiresuk & Sherman, 1968), followed by its introduction in physical rehabilitation in 1983 (Clark & Caudrey, 1983) and in paediatric rehabilitation in 1992 (Palisano, Haley, & Brown, 1992). Since the twenty-first century, there has been renewed interest in its application in the field of paediatric rehabilitation as the demand for tools responsive to clinically important change increases. Outcome measurement using GAS can be applied for all common diagnoses in paediatric rehabilitation. GAS offers the attractive possibility to measure what one intends to measure, because the content of the scales is tailored to the individual circumstances of a child and the family. GAS can be a valuable adjunct when used alongside standardized instruments, and using only standardized measures might preclude the identification of many individual rehabilitation goals attained (Steenbeek, Gorter, Ketelaar, Galama, & Lindeman, 2011). Moreover, measurement of individual goal attainment provides information about the clinical relevance of the outcome in addition to a change score as measured by standardized measures.
