ASSESSMENTS

Young children learn by touching and manipulating objects, by listening and acting out what they have heard in stories and real life situations, by moving and playing in different ways and in different environments Bowers (2008). As a result, any assessment given should reflect the way children learn and not rely primarily on the regular paper and pencil assessments. Some of the primary reasons for assessment in early childhood include determining a child’s progress over time and to providing feedback to the child’s parent Guddemi and Chase (2004). It is important that when a child is being tested that they should not feel anxious or nervous so it is suggested that the teacher gives the assessment. The assessment should occur over an extended period of time and not just in one sitting as the single moment of time could be an unfavorable one for the child. Assessments should bring about benefits for the children and they should be reliable, valid and appropriate for the children being assessed Guddemi and Chase (2004).

            I live in the islands of The Bahamas and thought to share how children are assessed here. In The Bahamas, there is a program known as The Bahamas National Screening Programme (BNSP) where cognitive or behavioral problems that could endanger school performance are assessed. The areas looked at are “vision, hearing, motor skills, speech, language, cognition and social functioning. The screening is designed to identify those children who would benefit from early intervention / remediation services due to delays in developmental areas and learning difficulties” Ministry of Education (2005).

            Children develop physically, cognitively, and socially all during the same period of time, but none at the same pace. All children are unique therefore they have different rates of development from other children. Children also come from different family, cultural, and experiential backgrounds. As a result of all of these variables, a typical “one-size-fits-all” assessment will not meet the needs of most children Guddemi and Chase (2004). The assessment has to be adjusted to fit the need and characteristics present in the child. In essence, the assessment must be beneficial to the child.

               

References

Bowers, S., (2008). Assessing Young Children: What’s Old, What's New, and Where Are We Headed? Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=210

Guddemi, M & Chase, B.J. (2004) Assessing Young Children. Pearson Education Inf. [PDF]. Retrieved from http://images.pearsonassessments.com/images/tmrs/tmrs_rg/AssessingYoungChildren.pdf?WT.mc_id=TMRS_Assessing_Young_Children

The Bahamas Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. (2005). The Bahamas National Screening Pilot Programme. Retrieved from

http://www.bahamaseducation.com/PDF/Docs/BAHAMAS%20NATIONAL%20SCREENING%20PROGRAMME%202005.pdf