ASSESSMENT OF

CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT
AND LEARNING
VIRTUAL CLASS MEETING – MARCH 11,2022
◦ A CHILD IS BORN!
◦ Within the first 60 seconds of life
it is determined that the newborn
has a heart rate of 120 beats per
minute, she entered the outside
world crying vigorously and
breathing regularly, she withdrew
her arms and legs when touched,
she vehemently rejected the effort
of others to straighten her limbs,
and her skin seemed to glow from
the top of her head to the tip of her
toes. Her score: 10.
◦ From the moment of birth,
assessment and evaluation play an
important part in our lives.
◦ During the first minute of life,
infants are observed and assessed,
and their Apgar score is
determined. Five minutes later,
another Apgar score is established
◦ The Apgar Scale (Apgar, 1953) is
a widely used assessment
instrument that rates the newborn’s
physical well-being. Scores can
range from zero to ten with a high
score indicating good physical
condition.
 Brief History of Child Assessment
Practices
◦ Child assessment practices have changed dramatically over the last century.
◦ The practice of assessing children’s learning and development began with French psychologist
Alfred Binnet in 1904.
◦ Assessment was initially referred to as testing.
◦ Testing required the specialized training of psychologists who used standardized procedures and
interpreted scores based on normative data. These tests were often used for diagnostic purposes
◦ One of the most widely recognized was the IQ test which measured the contextualized
knowledge and skills that drew heavily on verbal and mathematical abilities
◦ Test scores could be used to rank order children from superior to below average intelligence
 Brief History of Child Assessment
Practices
◦ Recently, in the field of early childhood education, there has been an ongoing debate related to the various roles that
assessment and evaluation play within the profession.
◦ This debate has focused on what types of assessment and evaluation are appropriate for young children and what uses and
misuses can result from the outcomes of these evaluations.
◦ Most of this debate has focused specifically on the misuses of standardized testing in early childhood education. While much
of the current focus in the debate is on standardized testing issues, it is important to look beyond. The process of assessment
and evaluation is more than simply testing and measuring.
◦ Understanding children’s performances or academic or behavioral competencies involves more than looking at their test
scores. It is more than comparing one child’s scores to those of other children in the same grade or developmental level.
◦ It is important to know and understand what underlies those scores, that is, what may have influenced the child’s performance
and resulted in a particular score on a particular test.
◦ This is especially true in early childhood education due to the qualitative differences in children’s thinking at this stage as
compared with later stages of development.
 PARAMETERS OF EARLY
CHILDHOOD
◦ Early childhood can be described from three different but related perspectives:
chronological age, developmental stage, or traditional school grade level.
◦ Chronologically, early childhood is defined as ages from birth to 8 years old.
These are the years of greatest dependency on others, and according to some
(Scarr, 1976), the period of greatest biological similarity with respect to the
course of development, particularly cognitive development. In addition to
recognizing that this age span consists of many universal developmental traits,
it has also been recognized as being uniquely different from ages beyond the 8th
year. There is, in fact, a biophysical change in the brain that occurs at around
age 7 or 8 (Anastasiow, 1986). The maturation and resulting integration of
particular brain functions at this age make it possible for children to learn
things at age 7 or 8 that were not possible at age 5.
 PARAMETERS OF EARLY
CHILDHOOD
◦ Early childhood can be described from three different but related perspectives:
chronological age, developmental stage, or traditional school grade level.
◦ The developmental definition of early childhood is understandably very closely
related to the chronological definition. According to Piaget (1963), a
developmental child psychologist whose work has significantly influenced and
shaped the field of early childhood education, the parameters of early childhood
are captured by the sensorimotor and preoperational periods of cognitive
development.
◦ These two stages of cognitive development include approximately the first 8
years of life and are characterized by the unique manner that children use to
process information, construct knowledge, and solve problems. As a result,
children in this developmental period require specialized instruction and
learning environments.
 PARAMETERS OF EARLY
CHILDHOOD
◦ Early childhood can be described from three different but related perspectives:
chronological age, developmental stage, or traditional school grade level.
◦ Finally, early childhood can be defined by grade level (National Association of
State Boards of Education [NASBE], 1988). This is particularly appropriate in
the school setting. Early childhood education covers those grade levels between
prekindergarten and third grade.
◦ Increasingly, more and more schools are including prekindergarten as part of
their regular academic programs. These programs generally start at age 4;
however, some may begin as early as age 3..
 Definition of Assessment

◦ Mindes (2003) offers a thorough description of assessment

in early childhood:
◦ Assessment is a process for gathering information to make
decisions about young children. The process is appropriate when
it is systematic, multidisciplinary, and based on the everyday
tasks of childhood. The best assessment system is comprehensive
in nature, that is, the assessment yields information about all the
developmental areas: motoric, temperament, linguistic, cognitive,
and social/emotional.
Mindes goes on to say that, although there are many
definitions of assessment, there are common elements or
characteristics that they all share:
◦Assessment is a process; assessment is used as a
decision making tool;
◦Assessment can be applied to either an
individual or to a group of children; and
◦Assessment results in the generation of products.
 Assessment can be:
◦ Formal: ◦ Informal:
◦ Academic readiness tests, developmental ◦ Informal assessments include such
screening tests, and diagnostic tests are all
types of formal assessments, most of which
things as performance assessment,
are standardized tests. portfolio assessment, developmental
◦ Standardized tests are those that allow one to or academic checklists, and
compare the performance of an individual anecdotal records.
child on a test to that of other children who ◦ Both formal and informal assessment
have similar characteristics.
will be discussed more thoroughly in
◦ Information from individual assessments may
be combined in education evaluation
later chapters.
procedures.
 Why is assessment important?
◦ Assessment provides educators, parents, and families with critical information about a
child’s development and growth. Assessment can:
◦ Provide a record of growth in all developmental areas: cognitive, physical/motor,
language, social-emotional, and approaches to learning.
◦ Identify children who may need additional support and determine if there is a need for
intervention or support services.
◦ Help educators plan individualized instruction for a child or for a group of children
that are at the same stage of development. 
◦ Identify the strengths and weaknesses within a program and information on how well
the program meets the goals and needs of the children.
◦ Provide a common ground between educators and parents or families to use in
collaborating on a strategy to support their child.