Early Child Assessment includes the gathering information process concerning a child reviewing of this information then usage of this information in planning education programs or events that are at the child’s level and the child can learn from them. The article “why Assessment is important?” by G.S. Morrison explains the importance of assessment.
I agree that assessment is important in ensuring that it enables the child to get a high-quality education through evaluation of policies and the quality of various programs, and guiding teacher planning. For instance, a teacher can understand that a certain child has some difficulty in independently getting into various group activities and this teacher looks for activities that can enable the student to be independent in this activities (McLachlan & Edwards, 2018). The assessment provides the growth records of a child in different development stages: physical, language and motor, social-emotional, cognitive as well as learning approaches. It aids educators in developing individualized programs as well as identifies the various limitations and merits of the educational programs (McLachlan & Edwards, 2018).
Additionally, assessment provides mutual ground for parents or caretakers and the educators that provide the way forward in which the child can be supported. This assessment enables the teacher to inform the parents of the steps that the child has moved. For instance, a teacher may not be aware of the capability of the child to identify various colors but the parent can explain that the child has the ability to identify various colors in the kitchen fruit store. This enables parents and teachers to work together for the growth of the child.
However, I disagree that this assessment guarantees that educator that the information acquired can automatically lead to the development of high-quality education. The chapter and the articles show that this information gathered is always relevant and can aid in the growth of the child. However, the information gathered is affected by different factors such as child’s culture clash, language barrier and social-economic factors (McLachlan & Edwards, 2018). At the same time, the standardized test also provides the child information in relation to other children in the class.
This raised the discussion question on how to curb the challenges and threats affecting effective assessment in immigrant children.
Reference
McLachlan, C., Fleer, M., & Edwards, S. (2018). Early childhood curriculum: Planning, assessment, and implementation. Cambridge University Press.
