Assessing Young Children

     Through my personal experience as an educator, I feel it is important to have assessments for children's cognitive, socioemotional, physical (gross and fine motor) development that are developmentally appropriate. I think if we start looking at assessments not as a test , but more as a measurement of glows or grows  for the child , we can help our youth develop more positively. We can develop planful activities to help strengthen their grows into glows.

    I chose to reflect on assessments in South Africa. From my research I find that assessments in school have been hard to come by because two reasons ,according to Amod & Heafield, "this is firstly due to the historical misuse of assessment instruments for the purpose of exclusionary practices and the perpetuation of an inequitable education system.  Secondly children in this country exist within extremely diverse socio-cultural and economic structures and this contributes towards significant emotional and developmental differences between young children." Amod & Heafield also state, "although there is still a place for the assessment of individual learners to determine the types of support structures that may be needed,  government expenditure on education is more suitably spent on upgrading facilities, reducing class sizes and improving teacher training. This will provide all learners with a better chance of reaching their full potential. "

Reference

 

Z. Amod, D. Heafield (2012). "Assessing Young Children in South Africa." Psychological Assessment in South Africa: Research and Applications.