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Child Assessment

Celia Nguyen

Louisiana State University

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Child Assessment

Child assessments come in different types. Formal assessments such as standardized tests

and informal assessments that such as teacher-designed tests are all considered child

assessments. All forms of child assessment are meant to provide data for teachers and parents

about children’s development. The information provided from these assessments is to help

teachers and parents to make decisions that are appropriate for their development and education

(Wortham, 2012, p.138). Data collected from children can be used to identify their strengths and

weakness. Then the data can be applied to planning appropriate lessons for these children. The

data can also be used to diagnose children and decide placement for children with a disability.

Screener: Ages & Stages

General Description

The Ages & Stages questionaries is a developmental screening tool. Screening tools will

typically come with a checklist or a series of questions. Questions provided will track the child’s

development. Developmental screening is used to monitor the sign of developmental delays. The

goal is not meant to diagnosis a child. It is meant to help professionals determine with further

assessments are needed. The Ages & Stages Questionnaire comes has twenty-one questions. The

questionnaire intervals are spaced by two months, three months, and six months apart (Paul,

2014). This tool is screening five developmental areas. The five areas are communication, gross

motor, fine motor, problem-solving, and personal-social. There are six questions per

developmental area. Questions are also in hierarchical order. To respond to the questionnaire, the

person screening can respond yes, sometimes, or not yet.

Reliability & Validity

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Reliability and validity are often thought of as two different ideas. In reality, reliability

and validity are related. Reliability of an instrument refers to the consistency of scores over time

and among different raters” (Clifford & Reszka, 2010, p.6). Validity “is an indicator of whether

the instrument measures what it is intended to measure” (Clifford & Reszka, 2010, p.9). The

Ages & Stages tool is based on 18,572 questionnaires for 15,138 children. The sample is taken

from a large demographic. The sample is taken from mixed demographics in the United States. It

includes children from all socioeconomic statuses. The percentage of reliability is high. There is

strong technical data that proves this instrument is reliable. The instrument has been re-tested

multiple times and has gotten a 92 percent. The inter-rater score is 93 percent (Paul, 2014, slide

21).

Summary of Child Assessment

The child that was assessed using the Ages & Stages did well on the assessment. The

child scored high on all of the domains. On communication, the child can speak in five words

sentences, communicate in the past tense, and use comparison words. He/she can also

communicate needs, answer questions, and repeat sentences without mistakes. The child’s ability

to communicate is high. The only thing that the child is struggling with is following three

directions that are unrelated to each other. Under Gross motor skills, the child scored a sixty out

of sixty. The child can throw, catch, and hold objects. He/she can tip-toe, hop, and skip. Under

fine motor, the child can write their name, draw, and write letters. The child only needs to

improve on tracing a straight line. Then under problem-solving the child has gotten it down.

There is evidence that the child understands the questions and responded correctly. Finally,

under personal-social, the child shows that he/she is self-sufficient. The child can answer
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questions about himself/herself and complete tasks alone. Overall, this child development is right

on schedule. Currently, there is no weaknesses that the child needs further assessment on.

Reflection

The Ages & Stages is a great tool for anyone who is in contact with infants and children,

can use this tool. A child’s parent, guardian, relative, teacher, or care provider can use this tool.

The tool is simple for them to interpret. Child assessments are made to get an overall view of a

child’s development. The data collected is used to identify a child’s weaknesses and strengths.

This data is then used to apply to lesson plans that are appropriate for the child. If there are

developmental delays the data can be used to help further assessments or placement for the child.

The Ages & Stages does not diagnosis anything, but it will recommend if the child will need

further assessments. There are also three different questionnaires that this instrument uses. The

three questionaries are the forty-two-month questionnaire, forty-eight-month questionnaire, and

sixty-month questionnaire. By having three different screenings, we can track children’s

development in different stages of their lives.

The child’s score that I am interpreting is using the sixty-month questionnaire. This child

is five years old. This document was sent home to the parents to fill out. All of the

developmental areas that were screened, the child did well. The child did not fall under any

further assessments needed. Every developmental area fell under “development appears on

schedule”. This child’s assessment probably did well because he/she begins in the comfort of

his/her own home. The child was with a trusted family member and was in a comfortable setting.

These factors, may help the child cooperate during the assessment. The questionnaire itself also

allowed parents to be involved but the child as well. There are questions for adults to answer and
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to ask. There are also sections that allowed the child to write and draw. This makes the screening

interactive for the child. It will not make the child feel they are getting assessed.

The child did an excellent job under communication. He/she is can communicate with

sentences, use past the tense, use adjectives, ask questions, and vocalize his/her routine. The only

thing that this child received a “sometimes” on is following directions. The child should be able

to follow three unrelated directions with it being repeated or have guidance. Under gross motor

skills, the child received a 60, which is a perfect score. Then under fine motor, the child is on

track. He/she was able to write his/her own name, letters, and shapes. The child did struggle a bit

on tracing a line but that was it. Next, is problem-solving. Under problem-solving the child

received a sixty out of sixty. The child was able to define numbers, different sizes, colors,

identify the letters in his/her name. The last section is the personal-social. The child is able to

complete tasks alone, identify personal questions, and share with other children.

Overall, the child does not seem like he/she has a developmental delay that needs further

assessments. The child can hear well, can socialize with others, communicate his/her feelings,

and is active. The child’s family history is clear with no history of developmental issues. Parents

also have no concerns about their child’s development. There are no medical concerns that

parents are aware of. There are no behavior issues with this child and no overall concern that

parents have with their child at this time.

Teaching Strategies Gold (TS Gold)

General Description

The TS Gold tool (Lambert, 2020) is an observational assessment that is for young

children from birth to kindergarten. This tool assesses all areas of development that are

developmentally appropriate. The objectives that this tool assesses are social-emotional,
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physical, language, and cognitive development. More objectives include literacy, mathematics,

and English-language acquisition.

The tool focuses on children’s skills, behaviors, and knowledge. There are thirty-eight

objectives that the tool measures. Out of the thirty-eight objectives, two are objectives are on

English language acquisition. The other thirty-six objectives are broken up into nine areas of

development and content-area learning. The tool is administrated to rate these domains on a ten-

point scale. The TS Gold instrument is meant to assess all children in preschool and

kindergarten. It can be used on children with disabilities, gifted children, and English-language

learners. The TS Gold’s purpose is to document children’s learning over the course of the class.

The tool will help teachers inform instructions and communicate with children’s families and

other staff members. The TS is an observational assessment, not a screening to measure anything

or diagnosis children.

Reliability & Validity

Reliability of an instrument “refers to the consistency of scores over time and among

different raters” (Clifford & Reszka, 2010, p.6). “Construct validity refers to whether the

assessment instrument measures the theoretical constructs (e.g., knowledge, skills, or behaviors)

that it is intended to measure” (Teaching Strategies GOLD Assessment System Technical

Summary, 2011, p.5). It is important for early childhood assessments to be tested in a large

sample of children. The sample must represent the nation’s population of children around the

same age (Teaching Strategies GOLD Assessment System Technical Summary, 2011). The

CEME took a sample from 111,059 children and rated them using the Teaching Strategies Gold.

This population sample was divided into three-month age bands. There was a total of twenty-

four age bands that ranged from birth to two months through sixty-nine to seventy-one months.
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Teachers would then ask questions about children’s race, ethnicity, and background. The goal of

this assessment was to “represent each of the twenty-four 3-month age bands with 500 randomly

selected children” (Teaching Strategies GOLD Assessment System Technical Summary, 2011,

p.4). The sample was used to match the U.S. Census Bureau 2009 for children from the ages of

birth to five years old. Then the last sample to prove the TS Gold reliability and validity retained

a total of 10,963 children. The sample was diverse and come from 618 different programs at

2,525 different early childhood centers. The final sample was a large sample that retained 10,963

children. There are analyses that were conducted to test if the TS Gold is reliable. “High person

and/or item reliability means that there is a high probability of replicating the instrument’s

results” (Teaching Strategies GOLD Assessment System Technical Summary, 2011, p.6). For it

to be reliable it should follow the same developmental progression when administered to another

sample of children. The TS Gold is .99 reliable (Teaching Strategies GOLD Assessment System

Technical Summary, 2011).

Summary

The child was assessed using the Teaching Strategies Gold assessment. On the

assessment, the only thing that the child was measured on was social-emotional, cognitive, and

literacy. The assessment is scored on a thirteen-point scale. Under social-emotional the child did

not manage his/her feelings well. The child scored a four on this objective. He/she has not

balanced that needs and rights of self and others yet. This objective also scored a four. Other than

that, the child did well on other objectives under social-emotional. Cognitive is the weakest

domain for this child. The child has not shown persists yet. The child scored low on problem-

solving. There was no evidence of the child showing flexibility and inventiveness when thinking.

The child has not used classification skills yet also. Also, the child is weak under thinking
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symbolically. Lastly, the child still needs improvement in writing using convention. The child

has not shown proof he/she has grasped this objective. There are more strengthen that the child

showed than weaknesses. It is not noted if the child needs further assessment. The child seems

like he/she is on the right track.

Reflection

The Teaching Strategies Gold assessment is a great tool to use. It is designed for all

children. It can even be used on children with a disability, non-English children, and gifted

children. This is beneficial for all children because the score will be fair. There will be no

disadvantages for any children. TS Gold is meant to screen children not to score them on how

well they are doing on a certain skill. There is no conclusive evidence for this tool. Since this

tool does not have conclusive evidence, there are no recommendations provided.

The tool can be used again throughout the school year. The child has many chances to

improve in the developmental areas. The assessment allows educators to track the progress of

children. The limitations to this assessment are some schools will use this assessment.

Depending on the school they may use a different kind of child assessment. Teachers are also the

only ones who can use this assessment to assess their students. Parents are not involved in this

tool. This means students are getting screened in the classroom. This may cause children to not

perform their best. When children get screened in the comfort of their own home, they are not

shy. They may be more willing to perform better. There are also fewer distractions at home.

When children get assessed in the classroom they may not comply with the teacher. They may

also get distracted because their peers are doing something else. Children will want to rush the

assessment to go play with their peers.

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The tool will help teachers identify their students’ strengths and weaknesses. The data

will give teachers an overview of the progression of student’s development. The objectives are

broad overall. It is mainly hitting the main points under each domain. The person who interprets

the tool will only see the score of each objective. There are no notes provided on the assessment

to understand why the child did receive the score. Again, there are no recommendations because

the teacher is not trying to diagnosis a child. Educators are using the tool to help professionals if

they need more information on a child. The information on the tool is briefer and more

comprehensive. The tool creates an overall picture of each child to help specialists when a child

does have developmental delays.

The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)

General Description

The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (Good et al., 2007) is a tool with a

set of assessments that measures a set of literacy skills from Kindergarten through 8th grade. The

literacy skills are alphabetic principle, accuracy, fluency, phonemic awareness, and

comprehension. There is not a test designed for Pre-K classes. The only appropriate test to

administer to a Pre-K student is initial sound fluency. This tool is designed for benchmark

screening and monitoring the progress of students. Each of the fluency that is measured will take

one minute. The DIBELS does correspond with the state the Common Core Standards. It aligns

with state reading standards. This tool is now a valid way to screen for dyslexia.

Reliability & Validity

Reliability and validity are often thought of as two different ideas. In reality, reliability

and validity are related. Reliability of an instrument refers to the consistency of scores over time

and among different raters” (Clifford & Reszka, 2010, p.6). Validity “is an indicator of whether
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the instrument measures what it is intended to measure” (Clifford & Reszka, 2010, p.9). The

reliability in January in kindergarten of initial sound fluency is .72 (Good et al., 2004). The

reliability completed by Ditkowsky in a one-week span was .72 (Good et al., 2004). This score

may be more reliable because it was conducted in a short test-retest interval. This assessment is

low in reliability due to educational decision making. The questions can be repeated within a

one-minute. “By repeating the assessment 4 (r = .72) to 6 (r = .62) times, the resulting aggregate

is predicted to have a reliability of .91” (Good et al., 2004, p. 18). The average validity score of a

single initial sound fluency for kindergarten is .48 during winter (Good et al., 2004). Initial

sound fluency “displayed lower correlations with intellectual functioning, and the correlations

were sometimes non-significant” (Good et al., 2004, p. 18).

Summary

The child that I used the DIBELS on was close to gifted. My mentor mentioned that this

child can read, and he is in Pre-K. We did not go through the entire tool in one session. Due to

the having twenty sections. The assessment was split up into two days. When administering the

assessment, I began by pointing to each picture while saying its name. While I was saying each

item, the child would repeat after me. Once I finished naming each item, I began to ask

questions. After each question, I began my timer. In each section, the child answered at least

thirteen or more correctly. It did not take long for the child to answer questions like, “Which

picture begins with /l/?”. The child was capable to answer these questions quickly and correctly.

On the other hand, at first the child took longer to answer questions like, “What sound does

“bike” begin with?”. The child took longer to answer these questions. As we got further into the

assessment, the child was able to answer these questions quicker. In the beginning, the child
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answered fewer questions per minute. Towards the end of the assessment, the child began to

answer more questions per minute. Overall, the child does comprehend initial sound fluency.

Reflection

The DIBELS is a great tool to use to assess and monitoring literacy skills from

Kindergarten through 8th grade. The benefit of this tool is that it will measure alphabetic

principle, accuracy, fluency, phonemic awareness, and comprehension. The teacher can see an

overall view of a student’s literacy skills. This tool can be used to monitor a child’s process

throughout the year. It will show the teacher how much the student has grown throughout each

literacy skill. Not only does this tool monitor growth but it can be used for screening. The great

thing about it is that this assessment is a valid tool to screen for dyslexia.

DIBELS can be used multiple times throughout the year. This will allow teachers to

assess students for growth. The tool will help teachers identify their students; strengths and

weaknesses. The data will give teachers an overview of the progression of student’s

development. Teachers can provide developmental support for students in need. DIBELS is also

aligned with state Common Core Standards. Teachers do not have to change up their lesson plans

to use this tool. The initial sound fluency is timed but students do not know that. This will not

cause them to feel under pressure.

The limitation of this tool is that it does not cater to Pre-K students. This assessment is

created for kindergarten through 8th grade. The only literacy skill that is appropriate for pre-k is

initial sound and fluency. This assessment is twenty sections long. Young children do not have a

long attention span. The initial sound fluency was not completed in one day, due to the child

starting to lose focus. This assessment had to be completed in two days. For the initial sound

fluency, there is a booklet that is used. The booklet consists of all the items that students will
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have to pick out. This makes the child feel like it is a formal assessment. This assessment cannot

be casually administered. The teacher has to pull the student aside to assess him/her. This tool is

can only be administered by a staff member. Parents do not get to administer this assessment.

There are also, no recommendations provided for teachers to help students improve on their

weaknesses.

This tool only provides an overview of a student’s literacy skills. It will allow teachers to

see what developmental support they will need to provide for the student. Since it is monitoring

the growth of the child, it can be administered many times. For the initial sound fluency, it is not

graded. This assessment will only tell the teacher the average correct initial sound per minute. It

is not the best assessment for young children because the assessment does that a long time to

administer. It does have to be administered over a couple of days. Overall, this is a beneficial

tool to monitor and screen children.

Summary

In conclusion, both tools have a similar goal. Both child assessment does not diagnosis

anything. The tool is only used to identify developmental delays. These tools are meant to help

with further assessments if needed. The tools are broader compared to environmental

assessments. They are not as detailed as the environmental tools. The Ages & Stages can be

scored by anyone who is in connection with young children. This meant that even family

members can use this tool to measure their children. Children can be measured in the comfort of

their own home. However, the TS Gold assessment can only be scored by an educator. Children

will have to score in a classroom. DIBELS is also only scored by an educator. It is a beneficial

tool to screen and monitor children from kindergarten through 8th grade. It is a valid tool to use to

screen dyslexia. The entire tool cannot be administered to pre-k because it is not
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developmentally appropriate. The only assessment that is appropriate to pre-k is initial sound

fluency. Overall, child assessments are meant to screen a child to catch developmental delays as

soon as possible.
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References

Clifford, R. M., & Reszka, S. S. (2010). Reliability and Validity of the Early

Childhood Environment Rating Scale. Retrieved October 03, 2020, from

https://www.ersi.info/ecers_reliability.html

Good, R. H., Laimon, D., Kaminski, R. A., & Smith, S. (2007). Initial Sound Fluency. In R. H.

Good & R. A. Kaminski (Eds.), Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (6th

ed.). Eugene, OR: Institute for Development of Educational Achievement. Available:

http://dibels.uoregon.edu/

Good, R.H., Kaminski, R.A., Shinn, M., Bratten, J., Shinn, M., Laimon, D., Smith, S., & Flindt,

N. (2004). Technical Adequacy of DIBELS: Results of the Early Childhood Research

Institute on measuring growth and development (Technical Report, No. 7). Eugene, OR:

University of Oregon. Author

Lambert, R. (2020). Technical manual for the Teaching Strategies GOLD® assessment (second

edition): Birth through third grade. Center for Educational Measurement and Evaluation,

University of North Carolina Charlotte.

Paul H. B. (2014) An Introduction to ASQ-3 [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from

https://agesandstages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Training-PPT-for-website-10-3-

14.pdf

Teaching Strategies GOLD Assessment System Technical Summary [Abstract]. (2011). Level of

Evidence Gold Standard, 1-9.

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Wortham, S. C., & Sue, D. W. (2012). Assessment in early childhood education: Y Sue C.

Wortham (8th ed.). Ventura, CA: Cram101.

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Assessment Tools
Ages & Stages

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bWUwRcp80O6o4tCB9cM5aqzJpXplQzdKLy_HqftBwF
4/edit?usp=sharing

TS Gold

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pnFFw4wmeGkdAfrxW7NlU95lBBv1hL79OdmiRM12E
MI/edit?usp=sharing

DIBELS

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X_ESD9uYxp29CAkG5tmHUnOETYfFihKwNQYGJT53
zZk/edit?usp=sharing