Assessment of Young Children

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Assessment of Young Children

• Learning about Appropriate Assessment Methods

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What is Assessment?

• An assessment is the process of observing,
  recording and otherwise documenting what children
  do and how they do it.
• An assessment provides an ongoing record of
  childrens progress with respect to the domains
  of early development and learning.
• An assessment happens on a continual basis, is
  embedded in regular curriculum and schedule, and
  results in instructional changes that improve
  childrens outcomes.

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What is Screening?

• A developmental screening is a brief look at a
  childs speech, language, motor, social, physical
  and emotional development.
• It is designed to identify children who may need
  further assessment by a specialist.
• Screening is often the first step in accessing
  special services to overcome barriers to
  learning.
• Screening usually occurs prior to, or shortly
  after, a child enters a program to provide a
  baseline or staring point.

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Purposes of Assessment

• to determine progress on significant
  developmental milestones
• to make placement or transition decisions
• to help in instruction and curriculum decisions
• to serve as a basis for communicating with
  parents.

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Types of Assessment

• Formal Assessment
• Developmental Assessment
• Family assessment
• Multidisciplinary assessment
• Play-Based Assessment
• Informal Assessment
• Alternative Assessment
• Curriculum-Based Assessment
• Portfolio Assessment
• Functional Assessment

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What Is a Developmental Milestone?

• Term frequently used to describe a memorable
  accomplishment on the part of a baby or young
  child -- for example, rolling over, sitting up
  without support, crawling, walking and pointing
  to get an adult's attention.
• http//www.zerotothree.org/glossary.html

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What is Formal Assessment?

• The ongoing process by which qualified
  professionals, together with families, through
  standardized tests and observation, look at all
  areas of a child's development motor, language,
  intellectual, social/emotional and self-help
  skills, including dressing, toileting, etc.
• Both areas of strength and those requiring
  support and intervention are identified.

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Types of Formal Assessments

• Developmental assessment An ongoing process of
  observing and thinking about a child's current
  competencies (including knowledge, skills, and
  personality), and the best ways to help the child
  develop further.
• Family assessment A systematic process of
  learning from family members their ideas about a
  child's development and their strengths,
  priorities, and concerns as they are related to
  the child's development.

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Types of Formal Assessments

• Multidisciplinary assessment A form of
  developmental assessment (see above) in which a
  group of professionals with different kinds of
  training and experience works with a child and
  family, directly or indirectly. This type of
  assessment can be helpful because professionals
  with different kinds of training are skilled in
  observing and interpreting different aspects of a
  child's development and behavior. During a
  transdisciplinary play-based assessment,
  children's developmental level, learning styles,
  interaction patterns, and other behaviors are
  assessed in each of the four domains cognitive,
  social-emotional, communication and language, and
  sensorimotor.
• Play-based assessment A form of developmental
  assessment that involves observation of how a
  child plays alone, with peers, or with parents or
  other familiar caregivers, in free play or in
  special games. This type of assessment can be
  helpful because play is a natural way for
  children to show what they can do, how they feel,
  how they learn new things, and how they behave
  with familiar people.

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What is Informal Assessment?

• A procedure for obtaining information that can be
  used to make judgments about characteristics of
  children or programs using means other than
  standardized instruments. Informal assessment
  processes generally take place on a continuous
  basis and in natural classroom conditions.

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What is a Criterion-Referenced Test?

• An informal assessment device that assesses skill
  mastery compares the students performance to
  curricular standards.
• http//www.upei.ca/xliu/measurement/glossary.htm
  I

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What Are Authenticor Alternative Assessments?

• They are types of informal assessments which
  allow teachers to track the ongoing progress of
  their students regularly and often.
• While standardized tests measure students at a
  particular point in the year, ongoing assessments
  provide continual snapshots of where students are
  throughout the school year.
• By using informal assessments, teachers can
  target students' specific problem areas, adapt
  instruction, and intervene earlier rather than
  later.

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What Are Alternative Assessments?

• alternative assessment or portfolio assessment is
  in direct contrast to what is known as
  performance evaluation, traditional assessment,
  standardized assessment or summative assessment.
• Alternative assessment is also known under
  various other terms, including
• authentic assessment
• integrative assessment
• holistic assessment
• assessment for learning
• formative assessment

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Alternative Assessment (Contd)

• Any type of assessment in which students create a
  response to a question or task.
• In traditional assessments, students choose a
  response from a given list, such as
  multiple-choice, true/false, or matching.

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What Is a Curriculum-Based assessment?

• Any informal assessment technique or procedure
  that evaluates the student's performance in
  relation to the standard school curriculum.
• Curriculum-based measurement A type of
  curriculum -based assessment characterized by
  frequent and direct measurement of critical
  school behaviors often includes 1-minute timed
  samples of reading. math, and writing skills.

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How Does One DevelopAn Informal Assessment?

• First, assessment strategies should be planned
  when instruction activities are planned. Dont
  wait to tack on assessment as an afterthought.
• Second, make sure you have identified a clear
  purpose for the assessment. What are the goals of
  instruction? What student outcome would you like
  to see?
• Third, define the tasks or situation you will
  utilize to form the basis of the assessment
  process.
• Fourth, decide how you will evaluate the
  students performance in the situation or on the
  task(s). What will constitute not observed?
  Emerging? Mastery?
• Finally, develop the assessment materials and
  procedures

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What is a Portfolio assessment?

• The analysis of student work samples,
  self-evaluations, and other materials assembled
  in portfolios to document student progress over
  time.

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What is aFunctional Assessment?

• An approach to assessment that focuses on skills
  needed for current tasks.
• Functional assessments focus on everyday,
  naturally occurring, practical behaviors and
  accomplishments that are
• Easily recognized by parents and service
  providers,
• Central to the emergence of infant and toddler
  competence,
• Learned and assessed in context,
• Form the fabric of the relationships between
  infants and their primary caregivers, and
• Serve to elicit, support, and extend children's
  skills, abilities, and accomplishments.

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What Categories of Behaviors or Skills Should One
Assess?

• PHYSICAL HEALTH AND WELL BEING
• MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
• EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• SELF-CONCEPT
• SOCIAL COMPETENCE
• LISTENING AND UNDERSTANDING
• SPEAKING AND COMMUNICATING
• EARLY LITERACY
• CURIOSITY, ENGAGEMENT, INITIATIVE AND PERSISTENCE
• INVENTION AND IMAGINATION
• COGNITIVE SKILLS
• MATHEMATICAL AND LOGICAL THINKING
• SCIENTIFIC THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
• SOCIAL SYSTEMS UNDERSTANDING

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How should we assess?

• Young children should never be challenged during
  assessment by being separated from their parents
  or familiar caregivers.
• An unfamiliar examiner should never assess young
  children.
• Assessments that are limited to areas that are
  easily measurable, such as certain motor or
  cognitive skills, should not be considered
  complete.
• Formal tests or tools should not be the
  cornerstone of an assessment of an infant or
  young child. (Greenspan Meisels, 1996)

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What Are the Roles of the Teacher in Observation?

• Planner
• Assessor
• Evaluator
• Supervisor
• Player
• Facilitator

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What Is Child Watching?

• Child watching" is casual observation
• Casual observations tend to be a mixture of
  observation and inference
• Inference can mean jumping to conclusions or
  guessing
• Separating inference from observation requires
  reflection on your own thought processes --
  distinguishing between what you actually saw or
  heard, and how you interpret it.

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What Is Systematic Observation?

• Distinguishing between observation and inference
  moves us toward the process of systematic
  observation
• Systematic observation is setting up our study so
  that we eliminate or reduce bias
• We set up decision rules ahead of time that
  reduce inferences
• A decision rule is a procedure set in place
  before we begin data collection.

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Systematic Observationas a 2-Step Method

• Step 1 Describe what you see
• Step 2 Ask yourself what it means.
• Its like watching a child from the outside to
  understand what they are experiencing on the
  inside.

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Systematic Observationas Focused Observations

• In focused observations we can identify
• content goals and objectives for individual
  children
• what motivates the child
• how the child approaches new tasks
• what is his or her preferred learning style
• While informal observations have there place, a
  plan and commitment to observe children routinely
  is needed.

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What Are the Components of Focused Observations?

• Family, culture and home life
• Temperament
• Special Interests
• Likes and dislikes
• Behavioral challenges
• Learning styles

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What Is Individualization?

• Individualization means recognizing and allowing
  for differences in backgrounds, development, and
  interests, when planning activities and changes
  to the environment in order to met the needs and
  interests of each child. Careful assessment of
  each child reveals that in any group of children,
  there are individual differences in development.
  Input from families is imperative in your program
  planning and in your evaluation process. In this
  session the facilitator will present
  individualization goals and objectives for
  children and goals for working with families.

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What Are the 6 Goals for Individualization?

• See hand-out

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Communicating Goals for Working with Families

• Pre-k programs should adopt assessment and
  evaluation methods that promote the learning and
  development of each child
• Teachers should use a regular assessment system
  with multiple indicators and authentic assessment
  techniques, such as observations and portfolios
• Teachers should plan and modify instruction and
  guide communication with parents based on
  assessments
• Teachers should adapt curriculum and teaching
  strategies to individualize instruction so that
  every child continues to make learning and
  developmental progress.

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