For this assignment, you will be placed (virtually) in a real-world scenario that occurs in schools. Please read the following description of the authentic performance task and complete the requirements as described in the scenario.
SCENARIO
“Imagine you are a college instructor in a Teacher Education program and you will design a training presentation that you will use to train future early childhood teachers on the basics of standardized testing in early childhood. Outline this training in writing and develop three key ideas of support for each part of the program to include:
- How standardized tests are used with infants and young children
- The purpose of assessment in early childhood
- Different meanings of the term “Assessment”
Your plan should be realistic, coherent, and precise, and should address all three required components in a research-based manner using text support and outside research to create a comprehensive informational presentation focused on assessment in early childhood.”
Early Intervention for a Child with Hearing Impairment
Julio, who is 2 years old, was born prematurely. He did not have regular checkups during his first year, but his mother took him to a community clinic when he had a cold and fever at about 9 months of age. When the doctor noticed that Julio did not react to normal sounds in the examining room, she stood behind him and clapped her hands near each ear. Because Julio did not turn toward the clapping sounds, the doctor suspected that he had a hearing loss. She arranged for Julio to be examined by an audiologist at an eye, ear, nose, and throat clinic. Julio was found to have a significant hearing loss in both ears. He was fitted with hearing aids and is attending a special program twice a week for children with hearing deficits. Therapists in the program are teaching Julio to speak. They are also teaching his mother how to make Julio aware of his surroundings and help him to develop a vocabulary. Had Julio not received intervention services at an early age, he might have entered school with severe cognitive and learning deficits that would have put him at a higher risk for failing to learn.
How were these assessment strategies developed? In the next section, we describe how certain movements or factors, especially during the past century, have affected the development of testing instruments, procedures, and other measurement techniques that are used with infants and young children.
Enhanced eText: Self-Check 1.1 The History of Tests and
Measurements in Early Childhood Interest in studying young children to understand their growth and development dates back to the initial recognition of childhood as a separate period in the life cycle. Johann Pestalozzi, a pioneer in developing educational programs specifically for children, wrote about the development of his 3-year-old son in 1774 (Irwin & Bushnell, 1980). Early publications also reflected concern for the proper upbringing and education of young children. Some Thoughts Concerning Education by John Locke (1699), Emile by Rousseau (1762/1911), and Frederick Froebel’s Education of Man (1896) were influential in focusing attention on the characteristics and needs of children in the 18th and 19th centuries. Rousseau believed that human nature was essentially good and that educa-tion must allow that goodness to unfold. He stated that more attention should be given to studying the child so that education could be adapted to meet individual needs (Weber, 1984). The study of children, as advocated by Rousseau, did not begin until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Scientists throughout the world used observation to measure human behaviors.
Ivan Pavlov proposed a theory of conditioning to change behaviors. Alfred Binet developed the concept of a normal mental age by studying memory, attention, and intelligence in children. Binet and Theophile Simon developed an intelligence scale to determine mental age that made it possible to differentiate the abilities of individual children (Weber, 1984). American psychologists expanded these early efforts, develop-ing instruments for various types of measurement. The study and measurement of young children today has evolved from the child study movement, the development of standardized tests, Head Start and other fed-eral programs first funded in the 1960s, the passage of Public Law 94-142 (now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004), and Public Law 99-457 (an expansion of PL 94-142 to include infants, toddlers, and preschool-ers). Most recently, there has been a movement toward more meaningful learning or authentic achievement and assessment (Newmann, 1996; Wiggins, 1993). At the same time, continuing progress is being made in identifying, diagnosing, and providing more appropriate intervention for infants and young children with disabilities (Epstein, Sch-weinhart, DeBruin-Parecki, & Robin, 2004; Meisels & Fenichel, 1996).
The Child Study Movement G. Stanley Hall, Charles Darwin, and Lawrence Frank were leaders in the development of the child study movement that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. Darwin, in suggesting that by studying the development of the infant one could glimpse the development of the human species, initiated the scientific study of the child (Kessen, 1965). Hall developed and extended methods of studying children. After he became president of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, he established a major center for child study. Hall’s students—John Dewey, Arnold Gesell, and Lewis Terman—all made major contributions to the study and measurement of children. Dewey advocated educational reform that affected the development of educational programs for young children. Gesell first described the behaviors that emerged in children at each chrono-logical age. Terman became a leader in the development of psychological tests (Irwin & Bushnell, 1980; Wortham, 2002).
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