Tests for assessing Infants and Young Children - Research Paper Example

Tests for assessing Infants and Young Children According to Encarta dictionary, assessment is evaluating something basing on the understanding for that thing. It involves gathering of data then analyzing it in order to come up with a conclusion. In term of infants and children, assessment is a way of documenting a child’s progress over a given period. The data collected is mainly for parents or teachers and assists with classroom discipline of a child. The chief reason for testing is to check for disabilities; to determine readiness for schooling; to help in curriculum development. Testing means presenting a person with questions and tasks to get a measure of their performance usually represented by score. Assessment tests measure the extent to which we profit from instructions. The purpose of the score is to help in answering queries and provide information about the person tested program. There is two general categories assessment that is a formal assessment and informal assessment. Formal assessment has data that support the inference made from the test. In this case, these types of the test are referred to as standardized measures. The data is mathematically worked out and summed up. The scores such as percentiles, standard scores, or stanines are commonly given from this assessment. Informal assessment is not data driven but rather content and performance driven. Standardized measures assess general achievement and compare a child's performance with others. It identifies strengths and weaknesses comparable with peers. Informal assessments inform instruction. The efficient teaching method is determined in performance objectives, instruction based on these objectives. These performance objectives are then assessed. Educators are exploring new ways to analyze students’ performance in school using informal more than formal assessment method. Data collection by observation is informal assessment. This is because information is from interviews with teachers or parents from the past by teachers made tests. Over the past years, there has been improved curriculum based analysis over time. This is where numerous samples of performance are gathered. This was done using items from the curriculum, usually in basic subjects such as math, spelling and reading. Students’ performance is determined by words read or written correctly, or math queries solved correctly. Curriculum Based Measurement has been in use for overall assessment program to screen for program placement, monitoring students’ progress and instructional planning. Curriculum based measurement gives the teacher a fast method to determine student progress in the normal school subjects. Group and individual administration of tests are used based on the subject being tested. Norm referenced tests that have a standardized procedure for timing administering and scoring. They had been given to a sample of similar age and grade level. Hence, the final results from the test can be easily compared to students with similar characteristics. Test results show a student’s performance amongst a group. These standardized tests should be given as dictated in the instruction to ensure valid and reliable results. Assessment tests for infants are categorized into two. The first category is the Standardized tests. It is ready for purchase and used to compare children against development norms of other children. The second category is informal methods of assessment. Observation is an informal method of testing thus the results are not comparable to the standardized norms. Numerous standardized tests exist, and most of them are designed for specially trained persons for their interpretation and use. Early childhood professionals use standardized tests already in use by others. Many individuals in assessing infants depend on a combination of assessment methods both informal and formal methods. Informal or natural assessment use play based test, a tool used when the child is playing in their natural environment. The observer sees the interactions between the kid and their peers in addition to noting speech, language and other abilities such as motor. Rating scales and check lists are used for making judgments about kids’ behavior. The two are used in different dissimilar settings to show patterns in behavior. Parental interviews are valuations based on the observation of noteworthy people in the kid’s life. Types of assessments and tests and their advantages and disadvantages Common standardized tests, for children are Battelle, the Child Behavior Checklist, the DIAL-R, the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers, the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Tests for infants are the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, the Denver Developmental Screening Test and The Battelle Developmental Inventory by Riverside Publishing Company. These tests are for eight year old children. It tests numerous progressive areas like self-help, motor, social skills and language (Whiston, 2008). Advantages of The Battelle Developmental Inventory: It gives a clear example of curriculum referencing, intervention and evaluation further than the curriculum. It helps identify a child's outline of strengths and weaknesses. Disadvantage: Caution is needed to interpret scores. This is because of the small amount of items in some sub domains (Woolfolk, 2006). Advantage of Denver Developmental Screening Test: It limits the number of items to be administered. These items can sometimes stand-in for preliminary screening. Disadvantage: The assessor has to be familiar with the test in order for him/her to use this feature successfully. The Mental Scale is concurrent with the motor scale and seems to underrate the mental development of those children with motor problems. The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale assesses individuals between age 2 and 23. This test determines general intelligence. It concentrates on areas of short term memory, verbal, quantitative and visual reasoning. Advantage: This area scores ease comparisons between strengths and needs. For the pre-school children, these advantages are set off by the absence of playful activities that make the earlier versions appealing to young children and assessors (Paris 2011). Disadvantage: This test does not bring out the full picture of children’s intelligence. The Wechsler Pre-school and Intelligence Scale are a systematized test for children ages two and a half to six years old. It assesses language and perception areas. Advantage: It helps to clarify if a student who struggles in school is troubled by a learning disability or is running up against a barrier in learning potential. Disadvantage: It limits student ability and propagates stereotypes in a classroom setting. The McCarthy Children's Abilities Scales tests children between the ages of 2 and 8. Its purpose is to estimate child’s level of general intelligence. It also discovers the strengths and weaknesses of several ability areas. The areas include: memory, verbal, motor, perceptual-performance, quantitative and various perceptive skills. Advantage: It is convenient in analyzing the reliability of scale scores, in light of the relationship between the assessor and the child (Paris, 2011). Disadvantage: It measures relatively shallow knowledge and is difficult to isolate the needed changes. The Trans-disciplinary Play-Based Assessment is for children of six years of age. When playing, children are tested in intuition, social-emotional, sensorimotor, communication and language. Advantage: It is convenient, adaptable and can be implemented as soon as possible. Disadvantage: It has limited room for impulsive behavior and only focuses on test materials. Tests on the child’s language and communication, The Sequenced Inventory for Communication Development examine children of between 4 months of age to 4 years. It tests receptive and expressive language skills. The Pre-school Language Scale test is for children from age 1 to 6. The test examines language areas including aural comprehension and open communication. The Clinical Evaluation of Language Pre-school identifies the nature and extent of language disabilities in language areas of speech sounds, production and processing (Paris 2011). The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test assesses between age 2 and a half to age 40. The test measures English vocabulary and non-verbal hearing. For single words, this test uses picture recognition (Fulcher, 2007). The Test of Early Language Development examines children of age three through age seven on language progress. The Trans-disciplinary Play-Based Assessment is for children from birth through age six. When playing, children can be examined in areas of perception, communication, language and sensor motor and social-emotional. For the Motor tests, The Peabody Developmental Motor Scales examines children from birth through seven years. It measures development skills in motor areas. The Bayley Scales is intended for children from one month to 42 months. The test examines areas of motor, mental and behavior development. For the Social and Emotional Assessment, The Child Behavior Checklist is a behavior rating scale that examines behaviors related to learning disabilities. It is designed for children of ages 2 to 18. It includes both parent and teacher checklists. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale tests infants and children of ages 11 and 18 months. The test examines social aptitude. Areas of assessment are communication, socialization, motor skills and daily living (Fulcher, 2007). The Burks' Behavior Rating Scales is intended for children of ages 3-6 and examines social areas of development. For Self Help and Adaptive tests, The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale is used. The Vineland is for children of birth age to 19. The test examines social capability. These areas of assessment are communication, socialization, motor skills and daily living (Richard, 2010). On strategies to use to develop a relationship with the parents, I would choose the portfolio strategy. A portfolio is a collection of works representative of the child. This includes drawings and stories narrated by the parents. By so doing; it would develop a relationship between the parents and the child in informal assessment. With parents, child portfolios offer an array of information about the child, which assist discussions with parents. Therefore, the parents can relate to the child’s daily behavior. Reference Sattler, J. M. (2008). Assessment of children: cognitive foundations (5th ed.). San Diego: J.M. Sattler.Print Glenn Fulcher, F. D. (2007). Language Testing and Assessment: An Advanced Resource Book. Oxford: Taylor & Francis. Print Hersen, M. (2004). Comprehensive Psychological Assessment Handbook. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.Print Whiston, S. C. (2008). Principles and Applications of Assessment in Counseling. New York: Cengage Learning. Print Woolfolk, A. E. (2006). Educational Psychology. New Jersey: Pearson College Division. Print Richard Gargiulo, J. L. (2010). An Introduction to Young Children with Special Needs: Birth through Age Eight. New York: Cengage Learning. Print Read More