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Logistics
Required book(s) or materials: Alternative Approaches to Assessing Young Children
Seminar length: 2 days
Number of participants: 20 or more
Who will benefit from this seminar: Early interventionists, early childhood general and special educators, early childhood program administrators, related service personnel (occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech–language pathologists, psychologists)Speaker Fees: (What do fees include?)
1 day: $1500
2 days: $2700
3 days: $3960
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This 2-day seminar covers all seven modules. You can opt for shorter seminars with individualized combinations of selected modules—just let us know what you need to cover. |
Seminar Description
Assessment results fuel important decisions about how to best help a child develop and learn, so they need to form an accurate and comprehensive picture of the child’s true abilities, functioning, and potential. This seminar, along with the tools and information in Alternative Approaches to Assessing Young Children, shows early childhood professionals how to learn what they can’t from norm-referenced tests—how the child performs skills in the context of everyday life activities and environments.
Participants will move through seven “modules” and learn how to select and use highly regarded alternative assessment methods in the classroom, in therapy sessions, and in the home. Each module covers specific guidelines for implementing an approach along with examples, vignettes, and data collection forms.
The Modules
- Overview of Assessment Models and Practices
- Naturalistic Assessment: Caregivers and others who interact with the child on a regular basis observe the child in play or directly test the child to obtain information on functional skills that will enhance the child’s independence and social interactions across environments.
- Focused Assessment: Observers use adult-structured interactions with children to elicit specific behaviors that usually occur within the context of familiar activities and situations. They combine multiple behaviors across different areas into a single situation and use specific strategies to elicit targeted skills.
- Performance Assessment: Professionals give children the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and apply it (e.g., telling a story, building a model of a playground area, climbing a ladder, drawing a picture of a pet, creating a shopping list before a grocery store visit). The tasks can be developed specifically for the assessment, or they can occur as part of daily routines.
- Portfolio Assessment: Evaluators maintain a portfolio of a child’s progress over time and involve the child in the selection and evaluation of the content.
- Dynamic Assessment: Assessors compare what the child does independently and what the child is able to do with additional support and assistance to determine the child’s potential for learning and responsivity to instruction.
- Curriculum-Based Language Assessment: Professionals use curriculum-based language assessment to identify and analyze potential gaps between a particular context’s linguistic demands and a learner’s linguistic competence. This approach also involves determining the type of support a child needs to ensure mastery of the linguistic demands of the curriculum.
Participants will have the opportunity to discuss, practice, and adapt models so that they best meet the needs of their individual practices.
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