Assessments are an important aspect when
working with children. Building on our observational, developmental and
curriculum knowledge, we are able to make summative and formative assessments
of children’s growth, development, knowledge, skills and interests. These
assessments help us to communicate this information to families as well as
other professionals. Assessment skills help us to create effective curriculum
for both groups and individual children but also to assess our early learning
environments. Assessments are intended to
identify, document, support and promote children’s learning and development (ELECT,
2007). My
role with assessments has never been targeted in the area of IQ testing; rather
I use assessments as a tool to gather information regarding children’s skills,
interests, development and how they learn. Gardner’s theory has been
instrumental with the education of children, as it shows teachers that children
can demonstrate knowledge in their own ways (Berger, 2012). With the tools that
we use for assessments, it will give us information on how children learn. Gardner’s
theory shows us that we should present concepts to the children in more than
one way as each child will have his or her own preferred way of learning.
The
information from continuous assessments about individual children helps to plan
curriculum and tailor interactions that responds to their strengths and needs.
This information ensures that the program meets its goals for children's learning,
developmental progress and can inform what improvements are needed to improve
the program. Assessments also help to identify children who may be experiencing
developmental difficulties and may need additional developmental assessment and
specific interventions (ELECT, 2007).
Assessments
on Children in Africa
We know that all children will develop
and grow meeting the different skills and milestones at certain stages of
development. With this, we also know that children will develop and meet these
skills and milestones at their own pace and time.
It is important to recognize that developmental
milestones can be different depending on the cultural background of a child. In
an article, “Refining the Milestones: Assessing Child Development in Africa” it
explains that some items in Western tests are not
culturally appropriate for rural African populations and therefore cannot
assess if children from those communities are developing normally (Trust, 2010). For example, activities such as preparing breakfast cereal,
using a knife and fork, pedaling a tricycle and playing board games would be
uncommon for children in rural Africa. A pink doll used in a ‘feeding the doll’
test can be terrifying to many children who may have never seen anything like
it before. And some of the questions feature pictures – problematic when many
children have never seen a book or a pictorial representation of an object
before, let alone some of the more foreign objects (Trust, 2010).
Now, researchers from the College of Medicine in Blantyre, Malawi, and colleagues have designed a more culturally relevant developmental assessment tool to be used with children in rural Africa. Unfortunately, even with the tool, there are obstacles to improving child development in low-and middle-income countries. Many are limited in the resources they have available for screening children and for helping those whose development is delayed or disrupted.
According to the article, it states that tools such as MDAT will probably be used for research studies rather than for routine developmental assessments. However, it is an important development- the study illustrates an effective method for creating and validating a new, culturally relevant, assessment tool, and may aid the development of similar tools for other cultures.
References
Berger, K.S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th edition). New York,
NY:
Worth
Publishers
Early Learning for Every Child Today, 2007. Retrieved from
Website:
Refining the Milestones: Assessing Child Development
in Africa
Hi Stephanie -
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. It really opened my eyes when you discussed how some assessments will not be appropriate for every culture and class of children. I agree with Gardner's statement about using different methods to assess children. Everyone learns differently and therefore would do so much better on an assessment if it is given how they learn the best, I think.
Thank you for your post!
Gena
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteIt's so interesting all of the different ways that other countries are looking for more information on how to assess the "whole child". I have tried to find more information on it as it pertains to the United States, and haven't found much information. As I continue to work with children, some of whom have special needs, I think it's so important to look at every aspect of a child, typically developing or otherwise to see how we can best serve them in an educational setting.
Thanks!
Machaela
Oh my dear, Stephanie! I am so grateful for you! It can be so incredibly lonely doing this program online without all of the protective positive benefits of in-person relationships that we read so much about in this program! But I always know that you are there if I'm confused, frustrated, or just need to know someone else is going through this, too. Thank you for your sense of humor, your intelligent, well-rsearched, and interesting posts, your friendship, and your support. I am terrified that I will lose touch by taking the next eight weeks off, but I am holding the intention that sometime soon, you will take a break, and we will end up on the same track again.
ReplyDeleteUntil then, THANK YOU and please stay in touch!
With loads of gratitude and cheer,
Lauren