Screening and Assessment for Infants and Toddlers

1. Screening and Assessment for Infants and Toddlers Using What you Know to Individualize Your Curriculum

2. Session Objectives • Understand the difference between Screening and Assessment • Understand how both formal and informal methods of assessment provide useful data to support development. • Learn how multiple sources of information can inform curriculum planning for individual infants and toddlers

3. Activity • Draw a Self Portrait • Trade with your neighbor • What can you learn from this about the artist?

4. Screening • Developmental • Sensory • Behavioral • Motor • Language • Social • Cognitive • Perceptual • Emotional Head Start must complete screening within 45 days (45CFR 1304.20(b)(1-3):

5. What is Screening? • A snapshot of one moment in time. • One component of ongoing observations about needs and resources of child and family.

6. What Does Screening Tell Us? • Whether developmental skills are on track • Whether there is cause for concern and need for further evaluation.

7. Screening Process • Systematic • Schedule • Communication • Process for referral • Process for tracking referral outcomes • Process for tracking change over time

8. Screening Process • Screening for infants and toddlers is conducted in natural settings by familiar people.

9. Screening Process • Includes observations of children’s behavior and actions from • Parents • Staff • Child care providers • Others who work with the child.

10. Screening Process • Incorporates health and developmental history: • Prenatal care and childbirth • Timelines for developmental milestones • Past and current health issues • Information collected from parents • Initial health examination results.

11. Screening Process • Sensitive to cultural and linguistic background of the child and family • Considers other family characteristics • Safe housing • Employment • Quality child care • Social and emotional supports • Child-rearing practices in the family • Nature of family relationships that might affect the child • Other vulnerabilities such as exposure to violence, stress or family crisis situations.

12. Screening Tools • Standardized • Reliable (consistent results over time and among screeners) • Valid (measures what it intends to measure) • Normative (normal or average performance on the test is determined on a large, representative sample of the intended population)

13. Screening Tools • No requirement to use specific screening tools. • Work with • VA Head Start Infant Toddler Specialist, • Virginia Infant Toddler Network, • Mental Health Professionals or • Part C community partners to find acceptable screening tools. (See handout for resources)

14. Networking Activity • How do you screen infants and toddlers for possible developmental concerns? • What screening tool to you use? • Who does the screening in your program? • When and where is the screening done? • Can you think of a child you work with for whom concerns were discovered through screening? What happened?

15. Screening Snapshot Standardized Screens for concerns Multiple Sources Just the beginning!

16. Developmental Assessment • Ongoing process to measure child’s development over time. • Encompasses all activities that provide information about child’s developmental strengths, needs, resources and family practices

17. Assessment Process • Informed by screening information • Conducted daily in natural settings • Data aggregated and analyzed periodically throughout the year. • Formal and informal data collection

18. Collecting and Documenting Data • Formal: • Structured observations • Published developmental checklists or profiles • Medical tests and procedures • Informal • Daily Observations documented by • anecdotal notes • Photographs • Samples of work (such as scribbles or drawing)

19. Skills for Assessment • Staff who screen and assess young children need: • Excellent observation skills • A thorough knowledge of child development • An understanding of the proper use and interpretation of screening and assessment tools • Relationship-building skills with children and adults • Knowledge of how to best use the results • Ability to effectively communicate the results to parent and other professionals.

20. Documenting Observations • Objective language: • Avoid adjectives like fussy, angry, happy or sad • Leave no room for interpretation • Describe behaviors, not feelings • Describe actions, gestures, facial expressions • Quote language with no interpretation • Describe creations and related actions • Date and label everything!

21. Just Blowing Bubbles? • Find a partner. • Look at the picture on the next slide. • Answer the questions beside the picture. • How would you document this event to communicate the information you want people to know about this child?

22. Just Blowing Bubbles? • What can you determine about this child from this picture? • What questions do you have about this child? • What additional information do you need for this to be useful for ongoing assessment?

23. Family Partnerships • Integral to ongoing assessment • Frequent communication: • All staff need to be included in information sharing. • All staff need to understand their roles regarding what to share and how to share information with parents. • Information for families should be • Accessible • Understandable and meaningful • Put into action—related to every day activities at home and at the center.

24. Developmental Assessment • Ongoing • Multiple Sources of Information • Formal and Informal • Natural Settings • Family Partnerships • Documentation • Relationship-based

25. Data Analysis • We’ve collected the data—Now what do we do with it?

26. Putting it All Together

27. Responsive Process • Ongoing Assessment takes place every day. • Watch: Pay attention to a child’s signals- • Crying • Fidgeting • Smiling or laughing • Ask what the child wants • Slow down, wait and watch for a response • Adapt actions to the child’s interest. • Document your observations

28. Contact Information Ann Janney-Schultz, Manager, ECE/Infant/Toddler Specialist Virginia Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Center 540-344-4547 (office) 540-520-2171 (Cell) Ajanney-schultz@icfi.com Lisa Wagley ECE Specialist Virginia Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Center (434) 589-2281 (Office) (434) 906-0027 lwagley@icfi.com