Child assessments – When should they be done? How should they be done? Who should be responsible that an assessment is done? These are questions that both parents and developmentalists are asking in this 21st century. Berger (2009) stated that clinicians cannot agree when and how children are tested for cognitive skills. As an Early Childhood professional I must say that children need assessments in cognitive, social and biosocial areas of their age groupings, preferably before grade school. Special needs children need to have thoughtful and professional caregivers to assist learning and development.
We have had a child in our center since he was 2 and he is now turning 3 years old. The parent and some caregivers in the center were convinced that the child’s screaming ‘fits’ were behavioral. Last month we figured out what his problem was. He was not able to articulate to his classmates what he wanted so he resorted to screaming, crying, and throwing things. Now we are able to get him help with his speech. Had we continued believing his problem was strictly behavioral his success in grade school would have been considering lower than his peers.
Egypt Assessment For Grade-Schoolers
I chose to find out a little more about Egypt’s educational assessments since Egypt has been in our news for the last two weeks. They have begun a speech assessment for Arab speaking children to ascertain their speech levels. According to Abou-Elsaad et-al (2009), children tested considerably higher on articulation tests when they were taught word association with pictures.
Abou-Elsaad T, Baz H, El-Banna M: Developing an Articulation Test for Arabic-Speaking School-Age Children. Folia Phoniatr Logop 2009;61:275-282 (DOI: 10.1159/000235650)
Berger, K. S. (2009). The Developing Person: Through Childhood (5th ed.). New York, N.Y. Worth Publishing.
I think it is good you focused on Egypt, since they have been in the news for quite sometime now. It is goo to focus on some of the positives when sometimes the news is very negative.
ReplyDeleteI think children's assessment needs to be revised and looked upon as learning more about the student, within the US we are in a state of mind that is focused on competition and being the first to build things, I think this a great but we are also losing focus, and as teachers and educators I think we need to focus back on the child's learning needs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Jayme. I also feel that that children need assessments in cognitive, social and biosocial areas of their age groupings, preferably before grade school. Thanks for sharing about the speech assessment for Arab speaking children to ascertain their speech levels. This is something that I didn't know about. I think this a great way to teach children.
ReplyDeleteI agree young children should be assessed prior to entering school. But I don't think so much weight should be placed on the outcomes of these assessments. Young children are very funny when it comes to assessing them, they might not be in a good mood, it may be hard to get their attention to focus on the assessment, etc. So many things can work against you when assessing young children.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is interesting that it showed that children tested higher with word-picture association. I can see that and I understand why that testing would be true. I agree with you that it is important for children to be tested before grade school...not necessarily to be "labeled" but I see it as a way to find out the strengths and weaknesses so that we can build up both of those areas! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteIt would be best for teachers to test children during the first week of school. This will help the teacher to know what each child weakness and strenghts are. This will help the teacher to be better prepared to provide each student with what they need to grow and learn. I want to thank you for choosing Egypt to learn about how their children are assessed in this part of the world. Great job!
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