Did you know one of the most natural parts of caring and educating young children is assessing them? We think about if they’ve gotten enough sleep, what we should feed them, how they will spend their time with us, how they are behaving, what they are learning, and more of course. When caring for and educating a group of young children, it is important to use assessment strategies in an organized way so you can gather the information you need to plan for meaningful and engaging days together.
Testing for Little Ones
Appropriate assessment or testing for very young children should never look like the standardized tests created for older children. Children should never feel they are being tested. Traditional testing singles out children, pressures them to perform, and presents questions in ways that are unnatural to very young children. It’s important to remember at this young age psychological development is a very important consideration and each child’s development is unique.
Social service agencies geared toward young children, and quality child care centers often offer “screening” tools to help teachers and parents get a general idea of the developmental milestones of the young children in their care. With the tool, adults learn about their children by periodically watching them to see how they are developing. These “tools” are helpful when planning relevant playful learning environments, and will guide your teaching so that it provides the maximum benefit to children. These tools also serve to catch any major developmental problems that may need intervention by a specialized professional. With the help of these professionals, or if the delay is minor, working with the children yourself, many developmental delays can be corrected before children reach kindergarten. I’ve always enjoyed working with the valid and reliable tool The Ages and Stages Questionnaires and recommend it for its ease of use for the professional and nonprofessional care provider.
Getting to Know Your Kids
If it’s not okay to sit with a young child and test her directly, how can you assess her? By watching her play! If you are a teacher, enlist the help of parents by sending the questionnaire home for them to fill out or set up a meeting, and have them fill it out with you. Be sure they understand the importance of observing their children instead of testing them directly. While the children are with you, observe them during play to learn their abilities and add this information to what the parents gathered. Between you and the parents you can start to get an accurate picture of what a child is able to do. As a bonus, think of the relationship building that’s happening with the families! To dial in your daily plans, it’s also important to learn about the general milestones of the children in your care as a group by studying the Ages and Stages Questionnaire or a similar tool.
When you observe your group of children, you can use a printed copy of questionnaire for each child to take notes, while another adult is available to be responsive to the children. Or, take notes in a notebook to fill in the questionnaire later. If there are questions on the questionnaire that you want to observe but the child you are observing isn’t attempting the skills, playfully set up experiences that include those skills. For example, if the question is, “Can she stand on one foot for 10 seconds?” play a game where the children pretend to be flamingos who are hanging out standing on one foot, like flamingos do. If you create a play frame like that with your entire group, you can assess many of them at once!
Understand the different areas of development in young children are all interrelated and important: fine motor, gross motor, problem solving, cognitive abilities, communication skills, and social-emotional skills. You may think it’s silly to see if a child can balance on one foot, but consider that this ability relates to physical and neurological development in early life. Related to that example is brain research which shows the connection between physical activity and cognitive abilities. When you find an assessment tool that is deemed valid and reliable, that means the authors have taken into consideration the current and relevant research associated with early development. You may notice that questionnaires are pretty minimal compared to the vast range of skills you see your children accomplish. That’s okay too! They are meant to cover the basics and it’s up to you to create experiences that help your group take the next steps in their growth and development.
An Act of Caring: Assessment
What’s important to remember is that the primary purpose of gathering information about the children in your care is so that you can set up their daily experiences based on their needs and interests. Think about it: if a three-year-old walks into a play space and all of the toys and materials are too difficult for her and of no interest, how will her day be? What will she learn about herself? Will she feel that she is capable and that she belongs? Or will she start to develop a poor self-concept because she isn’t yet able to use the materials offered to her? How will this affect her relationship with the adults who are caring for her? What will she start to feel about “school” in general?”
In group care it’s important to write down your observations so that you can keep track of what you see and experience with the children and not rely on your memory. “Old school” ways of taking notes of the children in your care involve index cards, sticky notes, and folders.
Old School Strategies
Try tracking your children’s development on index cards throughout the days and weeks. For example, when your child learns that red and blue are two different colors, write the date and a description, such as, “11/16/16. Jack separated the red and blue paper into two piles today.” When he names the color blue for the first time, you might write, “11/22/16. Jack showed me the color blue today.” When you track what he has learned in this way, he won’t feel tested. Bind a set of index cards for each child together with a key ring and carry them with you throughout the day (e.g., in an apron) so they are convenient. Or, leave them unbound and store them in an index card box. Make sure you have easy access to your index cards during busy days. Many child care providers use nap time to catch up on taking notes, as well.
Another approach is to create a folder for each child. Keep samples of a child’s work to show her writing, art, and story-telling development. Attach another piece of paper to the work that gives the date and explains of what she achieved, such as “12/2/16. Jackie showed me the picture and then told me a story about the picture. Her story had a beginning, a middle, and an end.” Sticky notes are a handy way to make quick notes too. Again, carry them in your apron, make a quick note, then stick them to the inside of the child’s folder.
Using Technology
Another option is to carry a tablet with you and create files for each child that are open and ready for you to make notes. There are also online programs within curricula that have easy to use developmental checklists and places to make anecdotal notes to track the children in your care. These options cost more than the old school ways, but if you are fortunate enough to work in a child care center that is well funded, adopting a school wide assessment system is wonderful for collecting data, and sharing the information with the children’s next teachers and parents. I’ve seen programs that generate nice reports for these purposes.
Assessment is an important part of planning meaningful activities for the children in your care. Reviewing your children’s growth from the developmental notes on their index cards, folders, and computer notes will help you prepare meaningful daily activities and create closer relationships by understanding their skills and needs.