The Languages of Assessment: It’s All About Children and Families

1. The Languages of Assessment: It’s All About Children and Families Dr. Hillel Goelman The Assessment Workshop, 2008

3. The Languages of Assessment:It’s All About Children and Families

4. The Languages of Assessment:Words of Power and The Power of Wordsin Working With Children and Families *Dr. Jo-Anne Fiske, The University of Lethbridge, The CHILD Project

5. What I’ll cover in this address on the “The Languages of Assessment:Words of Power and The Power of Words”* What children can teach us about the languages of assessment in early childhood practice. How the languages of assessment can help change public policy. How the languages of assessment can inform our responses to current government initiatives around full-day kindergarten for 5-year olds and junior kindergarten for 3- and 4-year olds.

6. Dr. Jack Shonkoff, Developmental Pediatrician: “Early child development isn’t rocket science; it’s harder.”

7. What children can teach us about the languages of assessment in early childhood practice: Example # 1 According to Juanita V. Copley, writing in the Exchange article, "Assessing Mathematical Learning:  Observing and Listening to Children," that in assessing children's math skills we must be aware that language often carries different meanings to young children.  She offers this example...

8. Example # 1 "An assessor asked individual children to identify triangles from a series of shapes. Most children could identify the more typically shaped triangles with little problem and also give a definition of a triangle as 'a shape with three sides.' During her assessment, however, one of the triangles fell off the table; and when she asked the child to identify it, she held it up so it was standing on the point. When she asked the child to identify the shape, the child replied that he didn't know, but he was sure it wasn't a triangle because it 'didn't look like it.'

9. He was then asked to tell what a triangle was; and when he responded 'a shape with three sides,' she asked him again why the shape wasn't a triangle. Again, the child responded that it 'didn't look like it' and that, in fact, it 'needed to look like a girl' if it was going to be a triangle. Puzzled, the assessor asked where the child had seen triangles 'that looked like girls.' The child pointed to the restroom door down the hall.  After a quick glance at the doors, the teacher understood the child's answer! The girl's bathroom had a circle with a triangle under it for girl and the boy's bathroom had a circle with a rectangle under it for boy."

10. What children can teach us about the languages of assessment in early childhood practice: Example # 2 A long time ago in a universe far, far away…..

11. Annie ?

12. In hindsight, I realize now just how helpful the Assessment Workshop would have been at that time in my life. In preparing this talk. I went back over the previous keynote addresses given by my distinguished predecessors and realized how each one of them had so much to contribute to a young, beginning professional who wanted to work with young children.

13. From Urie Bronfenbrenner, 1977 on the “science of early child development”: “The science of strange behavior of children in strange situations with strange adults for the briefest possible period of time.”  The importance of strength-based assessment 2003What We Can Learn About Assessing Young Children from Pooh and Tigger, TooDr. Laurie Ford

14. Principles of family-centred practice: Include families in decision- making, planning, assessment and service-delivery Develop services for the whole family Services are guided by families’ priorities Families have choices regarding the level of their participation 2004Understanding the Challenges in Assessing Young ChildrenDr. GerardM. Kysela

15. Children are always ready to learn. Learning begins in utero and is an essential aspect of early child development. It is how children learn that is quite varied and of interest. 2005Assessing What we Can Versus What we Should: What are the Important Things to Know About Young Children?Dr. Dale Farran

16. (The importance of) building trusting relationships between practitioners and children supporting individual characteristics and self-esteem fostering independence and problem-solving skills encouraging understanding and expression of emotions helping children deal with changes and transitions 2006 Handle with Care: Strategies for Promoting the Mental Health of Young ChildrenDr. Nancy Cohen

17. The interaction of biology and the social environment The “biology of misfortune” Increased mental/physical health risks when under adversity and stress 2007What do Monkeys and Kindergarteners Have in Common?Dr. Tom Boyce

18. What children can teach us about the languages of assessment in early childhood practice: Example # 3

19. The words of power and… Andy Andy …the power of words

20. What the Mom said to the teacher… “Andy plays perfectly well with the others – it’s others who don’t play well with Andy”

21. What the teacher probably said. “Andy does not play well with others”

22. What the Mom thoughtthe teacher meant “Andy is a bad child”

23. What the Mom might have meant by saying that. “I am not a bad parent…”

24. The languages of assessment Words of power and… …the power of words “I am not a bad parent…”

25. Some suggested communication strategies West, Idol & Cannon, 1989

26. Some suggested communication strategies West, Idol & Cannon, 1989

27. The teacher might have said something like… “Andy is such a bright and active kid. Did I tell you about his painting last week? He was drawing the letter “A” all over the paper! Big “A”s and small “A”s and in different colours. “What an exciting stage he’s at…Let me tell you about another part of our day and I wonder if you can help me out a bit since you know Andy far better than I do. He came over to the block corner and asked Brian if he could play with him and Brian just said, ‘No.’

28. The teacher might have said something like… “Andy asked 2 or 3 more times, nicely at first but then after the 3rd or 4th time he just kicked Brian’s block tower over. That was last Tuesday and I saw him repeat the same scene almost every day with Brian and then another girl in the class. “I’m curious about this and I wonder if you could tell me something to help me understand what’s going on with him…”

29. “Principles of Assessment” and Andy Adapted from Greenspan & Meisels, 1996 • Assessment/observation should be based on knowledge of typical and atypical child development. What knowledge of development is the teacher drawing upon? • Assessment/observation should use multiple (formal and informal) sources of information.How many different observations is this description of Andy based upon? Have other people observed Andy as well? What is their view? • Assessment should be conducted by skilled, sensitive and objective assessors who the child knows and who the child is comfortable with. Is Andy comfortable in the classroom? With this teacher? What are the indications of his level of comfort or discomfort?

30. “Principles of Assessment” and Andy Adapted from Greenspan & Meisels, 1996 • Observations should be conducted by skilled, sensitive and objective observers who understand how children interact with the human and physical environment. In what situations and with which children does Andy seem to play well and not so well? • The assessment/observation should include strengths as well as weaknesses of the child and the family. Has the teacher seen examples of positive, prosocial behavior? Where? And when? • The assessment/observation process should be collaborative. Andy’s parents should be asked to provide input into this assessment of Andy’s play behavior. How does he play at home? How does he play in other situations?

31. “Principles of Assessment” and Andy Adapted from Greenspan & Meisels, 1996 • The assessment/observation process should lead to appropriate intervention. What recommendations does the teacher want to make based on this assessment of Andy? What are the short-term and long-term goals that the parents and teacher might want to develop together? What intervention plans will they adopt to try and meet those goals?

32. Words of power and the power of our wordscanmake a difference in early child development. What can we learn from these three examples?

33. Words of power can create positive interventions and can also reflect the difficulties many children and families face. Supported Child Development Program Preschool programs Infant Development Program Care in the NICU Birth Late Infancy Late Toddler Late Preschool EarlyInfancy Early Toddler Early Preschool Family Discord Social-emotional, Physical Cognitive, Language function Lack of health services Lower trajectory: With diminished function Poverty DEVELOPMENT Age 6 mo 12 mo 18 mo 24 mo 3 yrs 5 yrs

34. The languages of assessment can lead to programs that support individual, familial community and policy determinants of early child development Heredity and prenatal environment, and early intervention child Familial supports and stressors family Community-based programs & supports community Policies, priorities and funding state

35. A new look at assessment: not an individual child but an entire province

36. A new climate is emerging that understands and appreciates the importance of assessment as a critical component of early intervention services.

37. The 1st example of climate change has resulted in… universal hearing screening universal vision screening  universal dental screening universal developmental screening

38. The 2nd example of climate change: Free public kindergarten in 1973

39. The 2nd example of climate change: Free public kindergarten in 1973

40. The 3rdexample of climate change: Briefing the Liberal Caucus on Early Child Development in the BC Legislature in 2005

41. The benefits of high quality early childhood programs

44. A new province-wide assessment

45. “A new Early Childhood Learning Agency will be established. It will assess the feasibility and costs of full school day kindergarten for five-year-olds. It will also undertake a feasibility study of providing parents with the choice of day-long kindergarten for four-year-olds by 2010, and for three-year-olds by 2012. That report will be completed and released within the year.”

46. Some of the issues we may wish to raise in regard to full-day and junior kindergarten.Adapted from Harbin, McWilliam & Gallagher, 2000

47. How do the “Principles of Assessment” apply to the province’s assessment of the need for full-day kindergarten and junior kindergarten? • Assessment/observation should be based on knowledge of typical and atypical child development. Will the assessment take into account the needs of typical and atypical children? • Assessment/observation should use multiple (formal and informal) sources of information. What are the different data sources the province will use to do this assessment? • Assessment should be conducted by skilled, sensitive and objective assessors who the child knows and who the child is comfortable with.How will early childhood professionals in different professions have input to the process?

48. How do the “Principles of Assessment” apply to the province’s assessment of the need for full-day kindergarten and junior kindergarten? • Observations should be conducted by skilled, sensitive and objective observers who understand how children interact with the human and physical environment. Early childhood professionals have long experience in observing child growth and development – this knowledge and experience should be drawn upon in making proposed service changes. • The assessment/observation should include strengths as well as weaknesses of the child and the family. There are many strengths in BC at this which have been built up over many years. How will these strengths be recognized and built upon? • The assessment/observation process should be collaborative. The processes of research, consultation, design, implementation and evaluation should be a an ongoing and collaborative process

49. How do the “Principles of Assessment” apply to the province’s assessment of the need for full-day kindergarten and junior kindergarten? • The assessment/observation process should lead to appropriate intervention(s).There is no “one-size-fits-all” program that meets the needs of all children. How can we plan for the diverse needs of children and families in the province?

50. We could be at a tipping point in the development of early childhood assessment and intervention programs in British Columbia. By next year at this time we will have the results of the feasibility study and there will have been a provincial election. We have a unique opportunity to use the power of our words to help influence the politics, policies and programs that will support the children and families of British Columbia. Let’s make sure that we make the very best use of this opportunity.