Main Body
8 Evaluating devepmental level
When a child scores low on standardized tests, it tells us about what they cannot do, not what they can do. As part of the assessment, make sure to look for what the child is capable of doing. Incorporating non-standardized adaptive assessment can be helpful to quickly evaluate a specific skill. For example, when using this approach, start where you think the child is, and adapt the difficulty level of the skills you are assessing up or down based on the child’s responses. This will get you to the child’s developmental level quickly.
Key Takeaways
- It is important to have a firm grasp on typical development, particularly for the birth to 3 age range.
- Identifying a child’s developmental level can help you make specific recommendations for interventions to help the child make developmental progress.
Resources for further information
- CDC’s Developmental Milestones
- Pediatrics in Review: Developmental Milestones (2016)
- Dosman, C.F., Andrews, D. Goulden, K.J. (2012) Evidence-based milestone ages as a framework for developmental surveillance, Pediatric Child Health, 17 (10), 561-568.