WHEN I THINK OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT

When I think of child development, it is a vast, forever growing, changing, and complex time of a child’s life. With that being said we need to change, grow and educate ourselves in order to provide the best opportunities for our children who need caring adults who know that social/emotional health is the indicative marker of success and happiness!

“The child to be concerned about is the one who is actively unhappy, [in school].... In the long run, a child's emotional development has a far greater impact on his life than his school performance or the curriculum's richness, so it is wise to do everything possible to change a situation in which a child is suffering excessively”.

Dorothy H. Cohen

Testing For Intelligence?

     The term “the whole child” is a very deliberate and literal term in my opinion. Teaching the “whole child”, means just that; which means teaching in all developmental domains equally! In today’s society so much focus is placed on reading, writing and mathematics capabilities; which in turn the child’s social and emotional development is left on the back burner. In order for children to be successful in anything they must first be in touch with their social/emotional health. There are so many children who come from broken/dysfunctional homes and the last thing on their minds is performing well on a reading or math exam. I also believe that music and extra curriculum activities help children to focus and distress as it helps them to become well rounded individuals. I believe that assessments serve a very valid need; children need to be assessed so that the teacher can meet the students where they are and use that information to plan lessons and individualize learning.

     The country that I chose to learn more about in terms of how they’re children are assessed is China. In china much focus is on language development. The focus is to test the student’s ability to use the language in meaningful ways. Also, there are a number of assessments that are used to assess children’s cognitive abilities. Such as;

• Performance-based assessment tasks
• Self assessments
• Peer assessments
• Teacher observations
• Portfolios
• Quizzes and tests

References

http://asiasociety.org/education/chinese-language-initiatives/assessment