As you may know, assessment is the process of gathering information for the purpose of making decisions. Ongoing assessment of children’s strengths and needs should continually guide our planning and teaching, regardless of the age or ability level of the child.
In early intervention, assessment is conducted for the purposes of screening, determining eligibility for services, individualized planning, monitoring child progress, and measuring child outcomes. Below is a list of the most current DEC Recommended Practices (2014) for Assessment. It is important to note that not all of the practices that follow apply to all purposes of assessment. For example, practice A9 focuses on monitoring child progress, but does not relate to assessment for eligibility purposes.
DEC recommends the following assessment practices to guide practitioners. As you read through them, consider how these recommended practices are being applied in your ECE setting.
A1. Practitioners work with the family to identify family preferences for assessment processes.
A2. Practitioners work as a team with the family and other professionals to gather assessment information.
A3. Practitioners use assessment materials and strategies that are appropriate for the child’s age and level of development and accommodate the child’s sensory, physical, communication, cultural, linguistic, social, and emotional characteristics.
A4. Practitioners conduct assessments that include all areas of development and behavior to learn about the child’s strengths, needs, preferences, and interests.
A5. Practitioners conduct assessments in the child’s dominant language and in additional languages if the child is learning more than one language.
A6. Practitioners use a variety of methods, including observation and interviews, to gather assessment information from multiple sources, including the child’s family and other significant individuals in the child’s life.
A7. Practitioners obtain information about the child’s skills in daily activities, routines, and environments such as home, center, and community.
A8. Practitioners use clinical reasoning in addition to assessment results to identify the child’s current levels of functioning and to determine the child’s eligibility and plan for instruction.
A9. Practitioners implement systematic ongoing assessment to identify learning targets, plan activities, and monitor the child’s progress to revise instruction as needed.
A10. Practitioners use assessment tools with sufficient sensitivity to detect child progress, especially for the child with significant support needs.
A11. Practitioners report assessment results so that they are understandable and useful to families.
Division for Early Childhood. (2014). DEC recommended practices in early intervention/early childhood special education 2014.