Testing for Intelligence, pt. 1

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.