Excerpted from chapter 10 of Alternative Approaches to Assessing Young Children, by Angela Losardo, Ph.D., & Angela Notari-Syverson, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2001 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Holistic View of Child Development

Child development is an organized, dynamic, and continuous process of growth and adaptation to environmental conditions. This concept prompted the development and adoption of assessment models described in this book. Practitioners who adhere to this belief collect information on the multitude of factors influencing a child's behavior before making decisions (Meltzer, 1994). For example, instead of assuming a language delay for a child who speaks English as a second language, the practitioner will assess several factors, including the caregivers' levels of acculturation; whether the child has had sufficient exposure to English; and the child's cognitive, social, and hearing abilities.

Alternative assessment models are based on the premise that a child is an "open system," highly resilient and motivated to achieve competence and balance through self-regulatory mechanisms. This premise assumes that the child plays an active role in constructing knowledge and influencing his or her social and physical environment. Self-regulation is defined in this book as the capacity to plan, guide, and monitor behavior from within and flexibly change according to different circumstances (Diaz et al., 1990). These assessment practices take into consideration the child's motivation by strongly emphasizing qualitative descriptions of complex behaviors, which have not been included in traditional quantitative assessment tools. The unstructured context of play, for instance, provides an ideal environment to observe a child's ability to organize emotions, sensations, and self-regulatory behaviors (Wieder, 1996). Other behaviors that supply information are derived from the child's attention span, engagement with others, exploration of objects, and persistence in activities (Segal & Webber, 1996). These measures provide valuable information on the how and why of behaviors and are important to consider if children perform poorly in formal testing situations.

Role of Context and Culture

Most traditional assessments have been based on descriptions of middle-class, monocultural, and monolingual children and families. To respond to the needs of children who are developmentally, culturally, and/or linguistically diverse from the mainstream culture, practitioners need to look beyond the child's performance in a traditional classroom or clinical assessment environments and recognize the contexts of family and community. Alternative models of assessment have attempted to address problems that arise when children perform poorly on standardized tests, which often fail to account for cultural or contextual influences on variations in performance.

Practitioners will benefit from being familiar with children's cultural backgrounds and utilizing this information when selecting assessment tasks and materials. This recognition — that the child cannot be separated from the family, the community, and the values and institutions of the society in which the child is developing — led to the creation of the alternative models of assessment and methodologies described in this book.

Caregiver Involvement in the Assessment Process

One characteristic of assessment models available at the beginning of the 21st century is the acceptance of the varied roles that caregivers assume in the assessment process, ranging from informant to examiner to evaluator. The involvement of caregivers in the assessment process is critical to any type of educational decision making. Caregivers are the adults who are most familiar with the child, so their participation in all aspects of assessment is essential. Bricker (1998) suggested that caregivers' involvement may vary depending on their values, availability, comfort level, experience, education, and background. Nevertheless, all assessment should, in part, be based on interactions with caregivers in natural environments. Issues such as language barriers and different views regarding disability (Lynch & Hanson, 1998) are more equitably considered in this way.

Caregivers are best suited to provide practitioners with an understanding of children's background, developmental history, learning styles, and preferences. This information is particularly relevant for children whose backgrounds may differ from the practitioners' and who may score poorly on traditional, norm-referenced tests. The external biases of traditional tests may obscure variations in performance due to cultural and stylistic differences. The authenticity of information supplied by caregivers warrants respect.

Using a Transdisciplinary Framework

No one individual or discipline has all of the necessary information or expertise to gain a holistic perspective of a child's behavioral repertoire. Therefore, an organizational framework whereby multiple perspectives can be shared and exchanged among the different observers creates a more complete and complex picture of the child's abilities. Transdisciplinary frameworks can also ensure that caregivers and practitioners work collaboratively for the benefit of the child.

As members of a transdisciplinary team, caregivers are viewed as full and equal participants in all aspects of the assessment process. A caregiver and a key professional often serve as organizers of the framework. Thus, the transdisciplinary framework facilitates opportunities for family members and practitioners to seek advice and expertise from each other. The transdisciplinary model of service delivery is the recommended approach when working with young children and their families.

Using a Multidimensional Approach

A multidimensional approach is defined as a comprehensive plan of assessment that uses numerous methods and sources of information across multiple contexts. It involves collaboration among various disciplines and with the child's family (Neisworth & Bagnato, 1988; Silliman & Wilkinson, 1991; Thomas, 1993). The alternative assessment approaches discussed in this book recommend tapping into multiple sources of information and applying multiple methods and procedures. Results can be cross-validated when various methods of assessment and sources of information are used to document children's developmental abilities.

Alternative assessment approaches are conducted across relevant contexts in collaboration with professionals in different disciplines and with the family (Neisworth & Bagnato, 1988; Silliman & Wilkinson, 1991; Thomas, 1993). Comprehensive and individualized plans of assessment include a combination of procedures ranging from formal, standardized tests to nonformal, naturalistic observations (Lahey, 1988; Silliman et al., 1993). A valid portrayal of a child's stages of development is made more possible with a multidimensional approach.