As an early childhood professional, my first commitment is to the overall well-being of children. Most interconnected disciplines of early childhood studies, i.e. education, psychology, medicine, sociology, safety, nutrition, physical education, occupational therapists often utilize assessment and testing in order to determine and support appropriate practices. Much of our current society asks the field of early childhood education to regularly test and assess our youth--not necessarily in the best interest of the children--to determine funding, program structure, supply/demand structures, and maintenance of educational establishments. What amount of measurement and testing is effective and ethical?
I am a supporter of early intervention programs and routine medical screenings for our young children. I also feel that there should be a greater openness in receiving families' questions and concerns about their children and their immediate environments. We should offer opportunities for families to request particular assessments and tests if there is a substantial reasoning behind it. Significant adults (family members, caregivers, teachers, and group leaders) in children's lives are the first line of defense when it comes to their well-being, instead of the the fifteen minute yearly visit to the pediatrician who sees thousands of children in that time, or the lawmakers and financial backers within the early childhood construct.
There can be great benefit to the child who's psychological or cognitive processing disorder is diagnosed so that they may receive the support they need to be successful. It is helpful for physical conditions to be recognized and accepted so that children can participate healthfully and appropriately with their world to the best of their ability. Children who are considered gifted or talented in a particular area will thrive when provided appropriate programming from well trained educators.or professionals. I believe, however, that there comes a point where the testing and labeling can become detrimental to overall development.
As symptoms, medications, societal definitions, and basic requirements of successful life change, so do labels. It can often be hard to determine a benchmark or a "normal" range for behaviors, physical symptoms, or performance in a particular area due to the differences in all humans. Not only must you consider the person in question, but also the test construction and evaluation process. Uncooperative, nervous, or stressed children may not provide accurate results. There are vast differences in short-range vs. long-term data. Medicines are often changed so frequently, that true data collection is a challenge. Who determines these labels, and to what benefit? Even positive labeling can have negative effects on the particular child or their family members. "Gifted" children are often held to exceptionally high standards overall, not just in the area where they excel, which can lead to self-doubt in other important areas of their development. The "other" children in a family may feel the pressure to keep up rather than be appreciated for the person that they are. A child with a condition that needs a greater level of attention, may attribute to other children feeling alienated. Not to mention, that vast amounts of testing may cause children to feel like they are constantly being expected to "perform" instead of being allowed to life freely.
Testing of children is performed across the globe, and the same concerns appear in most nations. This then leads to nations having skewed view of themselves and others. As we well know, different does not mean wrong, it just means different. In a nation where verbal skills are highly regarded, they may lag in mathematical scores. In areas where social well-being and group success is valued and strongly developed, all test scores may appear below-average, even if they far surpass many other areas of the world in cooperative tasks. As parents and leaders assess world politics, there may be a shift in childhood expectations based on statistics instead of developmental well-being and cultural variations.
Overall, I think that the most important to remember about labels is that they do not define a person. They should be used to afford all people with the opportunity to thrive and succeed to the best of their ability, by having the means and measures to access necessary tools. If we can redefine society and reconstruct the labeling system to value individuality, we can move toward a more positive and accepting world.
Resources
Benson, E. (2003). Intelligent Intelligence testing. American Psychological Association, 34(2). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/intelligent.aspx
Yes, Dana as positive child development professionals it is our responsibility to break down those barriers of uninform societal view on the assessments in early learning programs. When assessments are carried out correctly effective teachers take inconsideration these measurements to design short term and long term goals which leads to the educational success of the child. I too believe labeling children with gifted can be have an advantage and disadvantage in school settings. The pressures of always exceeding can have a negative self-esteem placement on a young child thus it can also push the child to continue to constantly be motivated and surpass just the ordinary.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your perceptive on the holistic child in views of schooling. I also wonder what countries you looked at in your review of the assessments. I agree that too much testing can lead to children thinking they are different and their is something wrong with them. I hope schools and parents can come up with another plan where testing often can be changed to giving the children more opportunities with less testing increasing their self-esteem.
ReplyDeleteI initially began looking at data from Poland, but was then led to various surveys and research from around the world. After reviewing a wide collection of graphs and figures I was led to believe that culture plays a very important role in the type of learning a child is exposed to. Their exposure, experiences, and encouragement is affected by what is accepted in a particular culture and benefits the family and community. While there are always exceptions, worldwide data is often skewed based on the testing and assessment practices that are utilized.
DeleteYou make a great point at drawing the importance of assessment and evaluation in the field of early intervention. The various assessments that are utilized to determine deficits and track progress in children undergoing interventions are vital to the success of any given child's intervention plan. It is just as important when developing and updating IFSP and IEPS- the assessments and evaluations determine if goals that had been set by the intervention and support teams are successful, and if anything needs to be adapted or phased out.
ReplyDeleteI think that every childhood professional commitment should be an better well being for all children. If children are tested and evaluated correctly it will be better to figure out where they stand so that they would have advantages of receiving the appropriate help to progress successfully.
ReplyDeleteIt is important for us to understand everyone can be different. All children are born with different characteristics, features, personalities. So it is essential for us and our children to accept the differences of each one. We don't have to be the same. A lot of time, assessment is based on statistics to make a sort of "standards" for evaluation. Children deviate from such standards are being assessed not "normal" no matter it is a gifted child or ADHD child. So then we will use different approach to mode the children back to "normal" behavior that are acceptable by adults. Sometimes I am wondering whether we do see things from the children perspectives and whether we do understand the children.
ReplyDeleteI have a ADHD niece. He is highly intelligent and thinks and reacts very quickly. However, a lot of time his behaviors or interaction with other children are not acceptable by adults. But when you asked him why he did it, he always said he did not know. So I could not understand why and could not see things from his perspective. There got to be a reason why he did it but he just did not know how to express it. Without understanding the reason, we just put our ways of thinking on the children labeling him as an ADHD child. That was actually sometimes very unfair to him.