I believe that a young child’s learning
and development should be assessed. I believe that assessments are necessary to
best meet the child’s developmental and educational needs. With the information
gathered from an assessment, we as child care professional can provide the
children with resources and additional support to aid them in achieving optimal
growth. With that information we can help identify any early developmental and
learning delays and seek early intervention to help support them. I feel the
most appropriate form of assessment should be performance and product based. I
feel that teacher observations and work sample portfolios are the best way to
assess children. When a child is observed, teachers can document how the child
interacts and engages in different activities in their environment. They can identify
the child’s development, interests and needs through the observations and take
into account all domains which give them an accurate account for the “whole
child.” Teachers have to remain unbiased and document factual information in
order for an observation to be an accurate assessment tool. Work sample portfolios are also another way to
assess young children. A work sample portfolio is a collection of a child’s
work over a period of time that shows evidence of the child’s growth. The
concrete evidence from the portfolio can be used to individualize lesson plans
and help meets the child’s educational needs. It can also be used for parent
conferences and to help set goals for children to achieve. I would not
recommend standardized testing for young children because it is not
developmentally appropriate nor does it give accurate data on their growth and development.
Most importantly it does not evaluate the child holistically.
