Assessment of Young Children



Assessment of Young Children

Introduction

Assessing young children is not the same as assessing older children and adults, for that matter. The major difference is the way in which the young children learn. Young children create knowledge in ways that are interactive and concrete, rather than just learning through reasoning and writing activities (Bredekamp, 1992). Young children manipulate the objects and behave in a different manner in their everyday life. In today's educational environment the accountability and standards can also be found extending their way to the preschools, (Bowman et al, 2001). NCLB (No Child Left Behind) act makes the accountability and the assessments necessary at all standards of the public schooling systems. Moreover, the present initiative of preschool demands a positive demonstration of children output and the current assessment efforts, (Horn, 2003).

Keeping this in the mind, it is essential to understand that both, informal and formal assessments are beneficial for the childhood. For the sake of discussions, the age group is divided into three categories; Infants (0-2), preschoolers (3-5) and schoolers (kindergarten to third grade). Due to the rapid, episodic and environmental sensitive child development, assessment seems to be challenging for a child who is in his early stage of childhood. A child, who is in his developing stage, will show times of frequent rest and rapid growth. There are four stages in which a child eventually develops. These stages are emotional, social, physical and cognitive. It is highly unlikely that two children be of the same nature. Each will have a different and unique development rate.

Therefore, a single way for assessing a child may not be able to meet the requirements of many young children. In our discussion, we will be reviewing three articles on the assessment of young children and will be identifying the ...