Preschool Skills and Assessment:
Recently I have had the opportunity to do some in-depth research on assessing preschool skills. While I am not a big fan of assessment, I understand how assessment can be a valuable tool. The preschool experience can vary greatly. Some preschools focus on play-based learning, others can be very academic but what they all seem to have in common is the goal of preparing a child for the kindergarten experience. So with the wide variety of styles and environments how is a parent to know whether his/her child has the skills to succeed in kindergarten? Isn't there a checklist that shows a parent or caregiver where to focus to prepare a child? The answer is no. There is no single universal checklist to assess kindergarten readiness. Kindergarten Readiness is such a mosaic of cognitive, emotional, and physical skill sets creating an inventory of these skill is very difficult.
The benchmarks and standards presented here are research-based and provide an achievement guide upon which to record individual growth and development. By collecting and documenting a child's development overtime we are able to identify and anticipate children's strengths and weaknesses without this important data it would be very difficult to effectively plan and individualized a program specifically designed to meet each student's individual needs.
Young learners are rapidly collecting information that needs to be processed and practice. With each exposure to a task skill or experience a child makes a connection that are appropriate for his or her individual level of development. As experiences are repeated the child has multiple opportunities to build upon the foundational connections that were made from the prior exposure.
For that reason assessment is also challenging during early childhood. A child's development is rapid, uneven, episodic, and highly influenced by the environment. Learning opportunities that will presented at any given moment can be influenced by many factors and when assessed are also vulnerable to the same factors. Because of these unique needs, using a curriculum that spirals in its approach to the present skills allows the child to have multiple exposures to the same skill experiences. This spiraling effect provides many opportunities for the child gather, process and practice using new information.
But how does this affect my reviewing apps? In order to effectively review an early childhood education app, I felt it was necessary not only to assess the quality of the overall application, but also to reference a comprehensive and well researched list of preschool standards and benchmarks. This way, parents and educators alike can quickly select apps based on the needs of the child.
