The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was a collaborative project with Dr. Helen Minnis, Yorkhill Hospital for Sick Children and Dr. Aled Evans, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow.

The illustrations shown here are some examples from the project.

The project received a Yorkhill Hospital Award in 1997, and was on the shortlist for Sciart awards in 1998. It is currently undergoing clinical trial.

Further information on the Questionnaire can be found at www.sdqinfo.com

A collaborative project to illustrate and adapt a paper version of a child's psychiatric questionnaire into an animated computer package.

"The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire" was developed by Dr. Robert Goodman at the Maudsley Hospital, London and is widely used within the child psychiatric profession to determine the emotional wellbeing of children.

We worked with Dr. Aled Evans, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, to transfer information into a computer programme that can record all the data fed into it by the child.

Dr. Evans also introduced a voice element into the programme, so that the questions could be read out loud. On testing the prototype with children at primary and secondary schools, we had a universally positive response to the animated computer version

We hoped that by introducing colour and cartoon characters into the questionnaire, and transferring the information onto computer that this would make it more appealing to the child. We also believe that stimulating the child's imagination helps to elicit fuller and more accurate information.
We developed "The Deltas", characters that change shape and colour depending on how they feel. The Deltas lead the child through the fully illustrated version of the questionnaire.