Your Child's Permanence AbilityScore: Next Steps

A single number is a starting point, never a verdict — your child's Permanence score is the first step on a clear, supported path forward.

In short

The AbilityScore® band for Permanence is a clinician-administered snapshot of how your child is developing one specific cognitive skill — the understanding that people and objects still exist even when out of sight. A score anywhere on the 0–100 range simply tells your clinical team where to begin and how much support to build in; it is not a label or a diagnosis. The next step is a calm conversation with your Pinnacle clinician to turn that number into a practical, child-led plan.

Making sense of the band

Object (and person) permanence is a foundational cognitive milestone — it underpins memory, problem-solving, secure attachment and later language. Where your child sits in the 0–100 band tells the clinician how emerging or established this skill is right now, so support can be pitched at exactly the right level:

• A lower band usually means the skill is still emerging, and your plan will focus on playful, repeated experiences that build the idea that things hidden are not things gone.
• A mid band suggests the skill is developing and benefits from gentle stretching into more complex situations.
• A higher band is reassuring and shifts the focus to consolidating and generalising the skill across everyday settings.

Crucially, a single domain score is read alongside the whole picture — your child's age, their other developmental strengths, and what you see at home. One number never tells the full story.

Your next steps

1. Review with your clinician — sit down with the Pinnacle team who administered the assessment so the band is explained in plain language, in the context of your child's overall profile.
2. Agree a small, specific plan — a few playful, repeatable activities woven into daily routines, with clear goals you can both track.
3. Practise at home — peek-a-boo, hide-and-seek with favourite toys, and naming where people have gone all gently strengthen permanence.
4. Re-measure over time — development is a moving picture; periodic re-assessment shows progress and keeps the plan accurate.

The Pinnacle way

AbilityScore® is part of Pinnacle’s developmental assessment. Diagnosis, where needed, requires an appropriately qualified healthcare professional — never from an app, a website or a number read in isolation. Backed by 2.5 billion+ data points and 25 million+ therapy sessions, your child's profile guides a plan built by people who know them. Learn how the AbilityScore® is calculated, explore our cognitive and developmental therapy support, and start anywhere from our home page.

Trusted sources

WHO healthy early childhood development guidance; American Academy of Pediatrics (HealthyChildren.org) on cognitive milestones and play; CDC developmental milestone resources.

Next step — Want your child's Permanence band explained and turned into a plan? Book a developmental review with a Pinnacle clinician.

This is general information, not a diagnosis — individual assessment and diagnosis require an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.