Beyond right and wrong: what social understanding really measures

Most assessments are built to score answers. A child responds, the response is marked correct or incorrect, and a number is produced. That number can be useful — but it rarely tells you why a child answered the way they did.

Sequence is designed around a different question. Instead of asking only what a child answered, we look at how they arrived there: what they noticed, how they interpreted it, and what they assumed about the people involved.

This shift matters because two children can reach the same answer for very different reasons — and two children with different answers may both be reasoning carefully. Understanding the reasoning underneath is what makes support meaningful.

When we make that reasoning visible, conversations change. A clinician can point to something specific. A parent can recognize their child. And growth becomes something you can actually see.