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Faiyazuddin Child Assessment Paper
Faiyazuddin Child Assessment Paper
Faiyazuddin Child Assessment Paper
Nauras Faiyazuddin
Assessing and evaluating infants and young children can be met with many concerns. The
objective is to eliminate these concerns and to establish methods, practices, and set criteria to
serve the needs of individual children. In this way, child assessments help to create a
comprehensive plan for evaluation. Although, no matter the assessment used, there is not one
single method for gathering information because it is very insufficient. This is because each
assessment “Has strengths and limitations; moreover, a single method provides only one portion
picture of the child’s development and learning from different perspectives, such as that of
parents, teachers, and specialists” (Wortham & Sue, 2012, p. 34). That is why there are many
types of child assessments that are administered because these assessments should be meaningful
and focus on individual rates of development, interests, and learning styles observed in the child.
This creates room for recommended practices to develop in order for there to be an action plan
created after data has been collected. Without assessing and collecting data, decisions could not
be made to help grow a child’s learning and development, hence the number of assessments and
screeners available. Administering assessments and collecting data help teachers and parents
make informed and appropriate decisions about children’s development and education.
General Description
The ASQ is a developmental screening tool that is answered by a parent or caregiver. The
professional afterwards. The screening allows for intervention if needed, detects delays early,
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improves a child’s outcomes, and is encouraged by educational organizations. ASQ is “Used to
accurately identify children who may be at risk for developmental delays” and is “Designed to
encourage parent involvement and education” (Paul, 2014). This screener can be completed very
easily. Once given to a parent, all they have to do is answer the questions about their child and
either say “yes, sometimes, or not yet,” and their job is done from there. After, a professional
will score the questionnaire using the score sheet and then interprets the results in order to see if
a follow up is needed. The questionnaire can be scored with a “simple 0, 5, and 10 point scoring
system” and “Scores from the 5 areas are transferred to the Information Summary page,” where
the scores will be compared to standardized cutoffs and followed up (Paul, 2014). There are 5
developmental areas and those are: communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving,
and personal-social.
ASQ accurately identifies delays that a child might be having. It is a “Low-cost, reliable,
and rigorously tested” questionnaire that has many online data management systems (Paul,
2014). The screener has “Proven accurate by new research—highly reliable and valid,” and
allows for “Anytime screening—expanded administration windows so the intervals are seamless
from 1 through 66 months” (Paul, 2014). This means it is fast and easy to score while educating
families and is very parent friendly. More specifically, there has been “New standardization –
based on 18,572 questionnaires for 15,138 children (an exceptionally large standardization
sample),” meaning more data to compare and results to draw from for a child (Paul, 2014). These
samples mirror “the demographic mix of the U.S. population and includes underserved
populations and children of all socioeconomic statuses” (Paul, 2014). This very strong collection
of data improved even further when the 3rd edition of ASQ was created and the reliability results
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speak for themselves: “Test-retest: 0.92 (excellent) Inter-rater: 0.93 (excellent)” (Paul, 2014).
The validity rates were even excellent at a rate of “0.82 to 0.88” (Paul, 2014). Overall, ASQ is
very much reliable and valid with how well it works not just for the western hemisphere but
The child that was assessed, scored in the white area which is above the cutoff, and the
child’s development appears to be on schedule. The child’s communication score is a 55, gross
motor is a 60, fine motor is a 55, problem solving is a 60, and personal social is a 60 as well (See
Appendix A for the exact scores given.) The child was only technically low in communication
and fine motor because of 1 specific question in each. In the communication section it was the
first question involving repeating directions without help and the child struggled with that a bit.
Because of that, her mother said “sometimes.” In fine motor it was the first question that was
given a sometimes as well, and the question involves whether or not the child goes off tracing on
a line more than three times. Which is why the mother said “sometimes” there and a 5 score was
recorded. But, other than those two lower scores, the child is exceptionally well off and scored
above the standardized cut off. The child’s strengths were in all sections but specifically gross
motor, problem solving, and personal social. There is no follow up action that needs to be taken
at this time. The child will improve in these two minor issues as she grows and develops and are
Reflection
ASQ has been under review and updated as the years go on. The screener was designed
in order for skills in a child to be easily observed by parents at home. It proves to be an easy way
for a parent to see what their child is capable of doing at the age they are at. That is why there are
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many benefits and limitations to the questionnaire. Nonetheless, the screener allowed for results
to be interpreted for the child and allowed for a professional to see if a follow up was needed or
not.
Some benefits of ASQ is how “Fast and easy” to score it is and educated family while
being parent friendly (Paul 2014), ASQ’s strength is that “—it’s easy to share results and talk
about a child’s development,” with a parent (Paul, 2014). It is also specifically administered to
certain months a child is by age in order to cater to set skills only a 1-3-year-old should know
questionnaire to be easily adaptable to a child’s age. Another benefit is how the ASQ is broken
up into 5 areas that are important in the development of a child. Each section addresses major
and minor skills that a child should be able to do. This specificity of the questions in each section
allow for follow ups to be possible and directly allows for those issues to be resolved. The
questionnaire pinpoints domains that are essential for a child’s growth. Most parents can
complete the questionnaire in 10-15 minutes, not realizing the amount of important feedback
they are collecting about their child. The questionnaire guides parents easily thought completing
it while also making them aware of where their child should be at. ASQ has many benefits but
Some limitations of ASQ include how there is only 3 categories to answer questions: yes,
sometimes, or no. Sometimes each question tells a parent how to classify what a “sometimes,”
means, but at other times it does not. in this way the ASQ should be clearer on when it is
considered a “sometimes” answer for each specific question. Another limitation of ASQ, is how
the intervals do cover many different months, but some of them coincide with others a bit and
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there could be a better distinction with skills and questions asked. Other than those few
limitations, ASQ delivers quick results and allows for effective feedback to be given to a parent.
The child I scored for the ASQ screener, fell into the white category. This means the
child is well above the cut off and the child’s development appears to be on schedule. The child
needs no follow up and is doing very well for her age. I was able to make this deduction after
considering the total area scores, overall responses, and other considerations, such as
opportunities to practice skills. In this way the child is doing great and is right on schedule with
Overall, this screener allowed for the child to receive the extra action she needed if she
needed it. At the moment the child does not have any developmental delays and or needs further
assessments done. The child can hear, talk, move, and think well enough to be socially aware of
her environment, while also performing well academically. The parents of this child do not need
to take any action and do not need to do anything at this time to help their child. There are also
no medical concerns that the child needed to be attended to or tested for. ASQ allowed for all of
this data to be collected and helped to see if an intervention was needed or not.
General Description
domains (social–emotional, physical, language, cognitive) and five content domains (literacy,
mathematics, science and technology, social studies, and the arts)” (Lambert, 2020, p. 5). It also
includes a tenth domain called English Language acquisition. Each domain has a set of
objectives that guide teachers through the assessment process. In total GOLD has 38 objectives
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and are called ODL. Each dimension under the first 6 domains has a progression associated with
it. Each progression represents a “continuum that enables teachers to relate observable behavior
to expectations for a child’s age/grade. Progressions help teachers and other stakeholders
(Lambert, 2020, p. 5). The purpose of any assessment is to make sure that they actually assess
the intended outcomes and GOLD has been designed just to ensure this outcome. Gold’s purpose
is to provide teachers with instructionally relevant information about the children they teach. The
tool is scored by taking the raw scores and then “are calculated from the sum of all the finalized
ratings a teacher made on the progressions under each domain. Raw scores, hence, represent a
child’s current knowledge, skills, and abilities related to a particular domain of development”
(Lambert, 2020, p. 10). At the end of it a child may have up to 6 different raw scores. These raw
scores need to be transformed into scaled scores to measure the amount a child has grown.
This assessment tool has been “designed and externally validated for use as a formative,
can be measured by examining the internal consistency across items within a scale, the level of
agreement between raters, or the extent to which scores for a child replicate across different
assessments, testing situations, and/ or time points” (Lambert, 2020, p. 23). Reliability is an
important characteristic of the information an assessment provides and is necessary “for the
validity of the information provided by any assessment” (Lambert, 2020, p. 23). In the GOLD
assessment, reliability is evaluated using the “Rasch indices: the person separation index, item
separation index, person reliability, and item reliability” (Lambert, 2020, p. 23). It has been
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gathered that through this GOLD assessment progress “it is reasonable to expect highly
consistent estimates of item difficulty levels across samples. The person-based reliability
coefficients are outlined below by domain of development” (Lambert, 2020, p. 24). Currently
The child was assessed using TS GOLD in certain domains of development. In particular
Socially/emotionally, the child looks to be having a hard time managing their feelings and or
actions. In particular, the “Balances needs and rights of self and others,” is low and has not met
this well enough (See Appendix B for exact scores). But, overall, the child did well in the
category. Cognitively the child looks to be having problems in: showing flexibility and
sociodramatic play. Those are some of the weaknesses the child experiences in both cognitive
and social/emotional. Lastly, in English language acquisition, the child is very much weak in
writing using conventions. This is an area the child needs an intervention program in place to
help the child grow from this weakness. Other than that, there more strengths in this section than
weaknesses.
Reflection
The TS GOLD instrument represents the developmental and learning expectations for a
given year of life or academic program year. It assesses a child over a long period of time and
referenced assessment. These are the optimal uses of the assessment and measure the progress
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children make through a process that emerges naturally. This assessment does have many
benefits and limitations, which can be seen through the child’s summary.
Some benefits of GOLD are how there are current and national samples that are taken in
order to validate the data and the progression of the children. The rating scale categories were
examined “to provide insight into whether teachers use the instrument in the manner in which it
was intended. Rating scale category effectiveness is one way to measure the validity of the
developmental progressions” (Lambert, 2020, p. 19). This allows for the probability of a child
reaching the next step on the developmental progression should increase. Another benefit is how
each domain specifically focusses on major skills a child should be developing as they age. If the
child is not, this is an area of weakness that can be addressed and intervened. Also, the tool
represents a child through the fall, winter, and spring academic year, creating a yearlong
collection of data and development. The tool assesses not one domain but many sections while
Some limitations of TS GOLD are how there are no specific interventions mentioned to
help when a child does fall behind in one category. If so, there should be some recommended
practices to help assist that area. Although there is a collective amount of data that helps to make
the assessment tool reliable, it does depend on the child individually, so more individual needs
should be met and adjusted for. Categories are good to classify and sperate skills but can also
place children in a specific section that they may never reach or need more time to improve. It
In particular, the child that was assessed was only assessed in a few sections for TS
GOLD, but it supplied enough strengths and weaknesses to help the child’s development. The
child can be introduced to specific intervention programs to help strengthen their weaknesses.
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The developmental progressions within each scale work very well together to measure a single
underlying domain of development. This could be seen through the darker blocked off areas in
appendix B. The rating scale helps to effectively place children along a progression of
development and learning. The items in each domain are organized from easiest to most difficult
and that can clearly be seen with the sections the child was not doing well in. This is normal and
a great way to see how effective TS GOLD really is. The range of items indicates how teachers
can use each section to help them understand the developmental trajectory that most children will
follow, and in this child’s case where he/she would follow. Overall, teachers gain more
experience and training with the use of the assessment. Teachers are asked to implement many
assessments at once, but GOLD tries to make it easier for a teacher to quickly help a child who
needs it.
General Description
DIBELS is a tool that consists of a “set of measures that assess the reading skills of
students in Grades K to 8” (University of Oregon, Center on Teaching and Learning, 2018, p. 2).
These measures include “Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), Phonemic Segmentation Fluency (PSF),
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), Word Reading Fluency (WRF), and Oral Reading Fluency
(ORF)” (University of Oregon, Center on Teaching and Learning, 2018, p. 2). DIBELS is a
collection of assessments that measure fluency and can be used for universal screening,
benchmark assessment, and progress monitoring in Kindergarten through 8th grade. The tests are
administered in many ways take up to a minute to quickly address subsets of reading skills that
children need in order to master their required skills for their grade level.
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Reliability & Validity
Reliability and validity are both concepts that are very much similar with some minor
differences. These two ideas are connected because “reliability is directly related to the
variability of your measure” (Trochim, 2020, p.1). Both are forming a “continuum,” where the
“concepts and methods of measurement are the same (reliability) and on the other is the situation
(Trochim, 2020, p.1). In particular, reliability focuses on testing and retesting in order to create a
sense of stability with the scores. When scores are stable, the correlation of data spreads out
more evenly. Having reliability checks are great ways to check and see if data is being taken
properly. Having a good level of reliability creates a “internal consistency,” that allows one to
measure concepts in the environment better (Clifford & Reszka, 2010, p. 8). Validity “is an
indicator of whether the instrument measures what it is intended to measure” (Clifford & Reszka,
2010, p. 9). In an instrument like these tools, validation can come from “gathering evidence that
support the inferences to be made based on the scores obtained from the assessment” (Clifford &
Reszka, 2010, p. 9). DIBELS is “reliable and valid indicators of children’s early literacy skills”
and “are effective tools for monitoring the individual progress of students” (Good, 2004, p. 2).
Students are “assessed monthly with all DIBELS measures throughout the study. Therefore,
multiple reliability and validity coefficients are reported” (Good, 2004, p. 2). For kindergarten
and first grade, “all DIBELS measures displayed adequate reliability” (Good, 2004, p. 2). The
median concurrent validity of DIBELS probes were “.36 for ISF, .56 for PSF, .51 for NWF, and .
The DIBELS instrument I gathered comes from a separate school from my placement
since my mentor teacher’s DIBELS is case sensitive and cannot be given out just to anybody.
Because of this issue, I was able to obtain DIBELS data for kindergarten from another school
and able to gauge the tool. In particular, the child shows improvement in phoneme segmentation
fluency as his progress has increased every month. The child did not fall back in progress and
continued to improve in phoneme segmentation fluency. The child is currently meeting the
benchmark goal at the moment and should stay consistent with that development in order to
maintain the good progress. The child did well at scoring at or above the aim line and is meeting
current expectations. In order to keep this consistent, the teacher can continue to monitor and
check the progress of the child using more probes. In Appendix C, there is a list of children who
are receiving varying levels of support and where they currently fall in the DIBELS
administration.
Reflection
DIBELS is a tool that consists of many benefits and limitations. This assessment tool can
be used to test many reading skills at once which allow it to have many positive effects on a
child’s development. In particular, DIBELS is very beneficial because it “can be a useful tool for
monitoring the acquisition of reading skills in elementary and secondary students” ((University
of Oregon, Center on Teaching and Learning, 2018, p. 2). DIBELS is packed with numerous
reading skill checks that help to test, monitor, and check the progress of a child’s development.
The assessment also provides as a dyslexia screener that helps to measure and validate
phonological awareness and the alphabetic principle that are typically used in dyslexia
identification. DIBELS is initially knocking two birds out with one stone by screening for
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important reading issues that a child might possibly have. Because the screening helps to find
these issues, a child can be caught early and helped sooner than later. DIBELS is also easily
graphable in order to track the progress of a child over the span of months and up to a year. The
assessment provides for a clear representation of progress being made or not made. DIBELS has
many facets and subsets which help to test many things at once while zoning in on important
skills needed to get to the next grade level. These tests are very helpful and beneficial because
they will show a teacher what areas their students have mastered in early literacy skills and what
areas teachers need to focus for instruction time. Another benefit is that the assessment is
inexpensive, and this cost is easy to pay for. DIBELS assessment tests areas separately so
teachers can quickly see if students are struggling in a certain area of reading more effectively.
Some limitations of DIBELS includes how the assessment is not tested in Pre-k. It is
harder to administer with children that are younger than 5 years old because of how long the
procedure can get with how many skills need to be tested. This can be taxing on very young
children. Some if not most of the tests for pre-k with DIBELS are too advanced and only sound
fluency can be tested appropriately. Unfortunately, DIBELS serves kindergarten and up but falls
short with creating reading skills that match any age lower than kindergarten. Another limitation
of DIBELS, includes how it does take less time to administer but teachers still may not want to
spend classroom time three different times throughout the year on the test, especially if they need
to give other assessments. Time needs to be allotted to give other assessments and DIBELS can
be time consuming. Some teachers do not like that DIBELS includes nonsense words as part of
the assessment and believe assessments should only include real words.
Overall, DIBELS is an assessment for reading that gives teachers access to a child’s
literacy skills. The tests help teachers measure phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, and
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fluency with connected text. The DIBELS test addresses the big ideas in beginning reading and
Summary
screeners and tools of assessment are guides for a professional to gauge a child’s development
and skills. In order to assess young children’s strengths, progress, and needs; the use of
responsive, tied to children’s daily activities, and supported by professional development are
needed in order to make appropriate recommendations. These assessments help to identify delays
in order to create interventions for individual children. Both ASQ TS GOLD, and DIBELS work
to present reliable and valid data that helps teachers make sound decisions about a child’s
learning and their teaching. Assessment instruments are used for their intended purposes and
both of these tools have their purposes. These assessments are appropriate for ages and other
characteristics of children being assessed. Above all, both instruments follow professional
Clifford, R. M., & Reszka, S. S. (2010). Reliability and Validity of the Early
https://www.ersi.info/ecers_reliability.html
Good, R.H., Kaminski, R.A., Shinn, M., Bratten, J., Shinn, M., Laimon, D., Smith, S.,
Lambert, R. (2020). Technical manual for the Teaching Strategies GOLD® assessment (second
edition): Birth through third grade. Center for Educational Measurement and Evaluation,
https://agesandstages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Training-PPT-for-website-10-3-
14.pdf
https://conjointly.com/kb/reliability-and-validity
research behind DIBELS® 8th Edition (Technical Report 1801). Eugene, OR: Author.
Wortham, S. C., & Sue, D. W. (2012). Assessment in early childhood education: Y Sue C.
- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OS5CuhR5XKXtyEd_alEo8hojmahvePwW/view?
usp=sharing
- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QJ2b1Sc_QkXMDaOBKLPz-14vdlSKbeDq?
usp=sharing
Appendix C (DIBELS)
- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mtjW9ZfIfY6rEzK5zwchDGYrnBdlD2f7?
usp=sharing