Part One – Topic
Topic: Incorporating developmentally appropriate practices in assessments
Incorporation of developmentally appropriate practices in assessments is critically important as it ensures that educators treat children as individuals by focusing on their strengths and weaknesses throughout the assessment process. This ensures that educators capture what in the children’s life could be affecting their learning and performance. Since the classroom has children from diverse backgrounds and cultures, assessments should reflect this diversity by recognizing that evaluation strategies will vary depending on the cultural background of the child. Also, what may work with a certain group of learners may not work with another group or as the group grows. Therefore, assessment methods should be adaptable and vary based on the expected learning outcomes. The journal seeks to highlight the keys to effective assessment using developmentally appropriate practices for early childhood. Multiple methods of incorporating developmentally appropriate tactics will be discussed to comprehensively evaluate the strengths and needs of individual learners. Additionally, the journal will discuss how a wide range of domains can be used to ensure that all developmental areas of a child are evaluated.
Part Two – Analysis
Adoption of developmentally appropriate practices in assessment addresses the four main developmental domains – physical, intellectual, language, and social-emotional skills of a child. Infants, toddlers, and preschoolers have varying skills in these developmental areas. This is usually reflected in the differentiation applied in their assessment process. As such, the assessment must measure the attainment of skills in the four developmental domains for children at different stages. The assessor must have a pre-existing relationship with the child to ensure that they fully understand the child. Additionally, assessment must take place in a child’s normal setting and reflect daily experiences and everyday relationships with the environment around the child. Also, observations must be ongoing and diverse to fully understand the progress throughout the developmental domains. To improve assessment as it relates to the incorporation of developmentally appropriate practices, educators should observe, document, reflect, summarize, plan, and communicate their findings to the children and their parents. This helps to inform the child’s specific needs in the classroom and future curriculum.