Carly Anderson

Grand Canyon University

The Child Assessment Cycle

ECE- 520
We were learning about
nouns in this picture  Dr. Linda Marsh

August 26’, 2020

 Stages of Assessment
1. Child- 2. Developmental 3. Diagnosis
Find/Case Finding Screening

4. Individual
6.Program 5.Program Planning of
Evaluation Monitoring Programs and
Interventions
Child Find/Case Finding 1

What is it?

• This is a legal requirement for schools, in which they have to find students who
have disabilities and could be entitled to services or a program.
• Children are covered from birth until there are 21 years of age.
• A school HAS to evaluate a child if they suspect or know that a child has a
certain disability.
• A school MUST evaluate a child if the parents request for one; if the school
doesn’t, the parents can file for a due processing hearing.
• Child Find is part of the federal law of the Individual with Disabilities
Act(IDEA); IDEA protects the rights of students who have disabilities (Lee,
2019).

2
 Development Screening
What does this mean?
• This is just a prescreening to obtain general information
that could tell if there could be a possible development
delay or problem that needs to be looked at more in-
depth.
• This is NOT giving a child a diagnosis but a screening
could indicate potential problems, in which the child
would need to go for a more comprehensive assessment
(Lerner, 2013).
• A well known/high quality developmental screening tool
is the Ages and Stages Questionnaires; which helps to
screen for delays accurately and doesn’t cost much to do
it.
• Who does them?: Early Intervention Professionals, Early
Childhood General or Specialists, Pediatricians and
Nurses, Public Health Providers, Home Visitors and
Parent Educators and other Early Childhood Professionals
(Developmental Screening, 2018).
 Diagnosis 1

• This is more of an intensive evaluation of the child than what happens in the screening of
a child.
• More information is required to complete the evaluation which is obtained through
observation, interviews, case history and informal/standardized tests.
• With all the information then, it can be decided where the child is having difficulties,
their strengths and weaknesses and how severe the delay is.
• The people involved are part of a multidisciplinary team such as if there was language
problem there would be speech pathologist, social worker/psychologist, someone who
specializes in hearing, anyone related to that delay.
• Parents role in this is to give history and be asked questions on things that they may have
noticed at home ( Learner, 2013).

2
 Individual Planning of Programs and Interventions
• If the diagnosis shows that a child has a delay, this is the stage where
the planning of programs and interventions .

• During this stage, the curriculum that is in the classroom is being

aligned to the intervention program that will be used for the child .
Curriculum based material is used or criterion reference instruments
are used.
• Areas that preschool students work on are; sensory/physical development,
language and communication abilities, fine and gross motor development,
cognitive abilities, adaptive or self- help skills or social-emotional
development (Lerner, 2013).
• Also at this stage an IEP will be developed for the child; there will be a
meeting to go over it and after a year there is a meeting to check on the https://sites.google.com/a/pleasantonpta.
org/snc/everthing-iep
child’s goals
• However, parents are still updated during this time with how their
child is doing.
• There is a team who participates in an IEP; General Education
Teacher, Principal, Parents, Special Education teacher and other
specialists if needed
 Program Monitoring
• Throughout the intervention program that is in place for the child; the person giving
the services to the child will monitor their progress. They monitor through
observations, developmental checklists and rating scales

• Keeping in mind that they are monitoring the goals that are set out in that child’s
Individual Education Plan.
• Tracking and taking data on what they are observing; helps to see how the
child is progress in the program and if it possibly needs to be changed
( Learner, 2013)

• Not only is the child receiving services outside of the classroom, their classroom
teacher also implements what is in the student’s IEP within the classroom; in that
way the student is working on their goals and at the rate they need to be (Stage,
2020)
Program Evaluation
• Not only is it important to monitor a
program, it is just as important to do a
program evaluation.

• This is to evaluate the program itself

and if it is successful in teaching most
students.

• The whole intervention plan is taken

into consideration by looking at
effectiveness of the program. It may
need to have some modifications
added/taken away from it ( Lerner, https://www.transparency-initiative.org/blog/5566/evaluation-pa
2013). rtner-terms-of-reference/
 The Benefits
Child Find
Child Find is important
because it can help identify
children who are toddlers and
even infants. If a young child is
found to have a disability the
can be put into a early
intervention program. This
helps parents to be able find
out if their child is on track.
Beneficial to the teacher
because they can start
interventions when the child
enters school
(Lee, 2019)
Developmental
Screening
Helps to catch a child’s
developmental delay before
they go to elementary school. Not
every delay is noticed by the eye.
Studies have shown that the
earlier one is recognized and an
intervention is put in place the
better chance of a child
improving drastically
(Developmental Screening, 2018)
Diagnosis
The benefit of getting a diagnosis is
that we can help the child early by
identifying the area they need to
work in, their strengths and
weakness and how severe the
problem is. As for parents you will
have this information and can use
strategies at home to help your
child. For teachers, it helps us to
narrow down and create specific
interventions on how we can help.
 Individual Planning of
Programs & Interventions
The benefit of this is that
as a teacher, we can see
where the child is at an
implement a program that
will help them to achieve
their goals. It also helps
parents because they know
where their child is at and
can work with them on
those specific goals at
home. Lastly, for the child
it benefits them because it
is brought down to their
level. They won’t be
frustrated with the work
they are given.
Program Program
Monitoring Evaluation
The benefit of this for the
parents, teacher and child This is important
is that it helps show how because we need to
a child is progressing evaluate the program to
towards their goals. For see how the
the teacher, they can see effectiveness of it. To
if they need to change the know if the program
program for the student. needs to be changed or
It also shows the parents not.
that the program is either
working for their child or
not
 Pre- Assessment
• These are given so teachers know what to
cover; they don’t want to cover topics that
their students have already mastered.
• It is used to determine the knowledge and
understanding of the topic prior to the study.
• Knowing what the children know, the teacher
can implement the proper lessons that will
benefit each learner.
• The pre-assessments should be given several
weeks in advance.
• Lastly, by giving out a pre-assessment test a
teacher can differentiate instruction as needed.
• (Pre-assessment in Differentiated Instruction
2020)
Post Assessment
• A post assessment is given after all the material is
presented in a unit.
• From this assessment we can identify what the
students learned and items that they may have
struggled with..
• Helps to target students who need review on the
material
• Not only does it show what the students learned
but helps teachers to evaluate their own teaching;
seeing what worked and what didn’t work and
what we need to communicate better next time.
Resources for Staff
• https://www.readingrockets.org/article/stages-assessment-process: I would give staff this
resources to start off with, so they can look to see what the stages of the assessment cycle are.

• https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/ch
ild-find-what-it-is-and-how-it-works
: I would also give them this resources, so they can read up on how the process gets started. To
me I feel like this is a critical step, to first be able to identify if a child has a disability or not.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4cznC1UgUY: I would recommend this video, it gives a

great lesson on what Child Find is and how they go about testing children.

• There are so many other great resources out there, that I would recommend; just by searching
each stage you can get pretty good information
 References
• Developmental Screening. (2018, December 21). Retrieved August 26, 2020, from
https://agesandstages.com/about-asq/why-screening-matters/developmental-screening/

• Lee, A. (2019, October 04). Child Find: What It Is and How It Works. Retrieved August 26, 2020,
from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-
rights/child-find-what-it-is-and-how-it-works

• Lerner, J. (2013, November 07). Stages of the Assessment Process. Retrieved August 22, 2020, from
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/stages-assessment-process

• NASET.org Home Page. (2018, August 08). Retrieved August 26, 2020, from
https://www.naset.org/index.php?id=3321

• Pre-assessment in Differentiated Instruction. (2020). Retrieved August 26, 2020, from

https://www.k12academics.com/Educational Practices/Differentiated Instruction/pre-assessment-
differentiated-instruction

• What are the stages of the pre-referral process and what do they involve? (2020). Retrieved August
26, 2020, from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/preref/cresource/q2/p08/