Methodological Aspects Regarding the Assessment of Development at an Early Age

Introduction

The assessment of development at an early age represents a theoretical approach from the perspective of the specifics of the evaluation, of the highlights /evaluation criteria, of the ways of capitalizing on the evaluation results; equally challenging is the field’s practical approach to methods and tools for assessing and monitoring early childhood progress.

In this chapter, the assumed directions are conceptual, but also methodological. It is imperative for early childhood educators to make appropriate use of the concepts specific to early childhood assessment and to adapt the assessment process to the developmental profile of early childhood. For the didactic approach to the evaluation process, the chapter contributes to the clarification of some aspects regarding the development of some tools for the evaluation of the child’s behaviours, some tools for monitoring the progress in the level of development of the child’s behaviours of an early age.

The subject addressed in this chapter is defined starting from the dimensions of the assessment and the specific aspects of the child's development in the early period, as follows:

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  school assessment (initial, formative-continuous, summative /final, assessment methods and tools, adjustment /improvement functions of assessment in the educational process);

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  the specifics of the evaluation of the development of the early age child (the evaluation of the behaviours in areas of development, the evaluation of the progress in the child's development);

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  the methodology of evaluating the child’s development (tests /evaluation tools, capitalizing on the evaluation result).