One person I had an opportunity to work with is the Executive Director. She oversees all three day care centers. I had the chance to visit the three centers and received a more in depth look at the day care center process for screening children for developmental delays. The Executive Director expressed that each center keeps a computer record of "each and every child that enrolls in the centers assessment details". I was shown the template that is used at the centers. The template consisted of each child's name, enrollment date, screening date, results, if the child need to be monitored/re-screened, if a child already have an IEP and/or if a referral is needed. The Executive Director explained that the centers are federally funded and there are specific requirements that must be met in regards to assessment screenings. For instance, the CPS program requires all children to be screened within 30-45 days of enrollment. If a child is screened and does not score within a specific range then the child must be re-screened in 4-6 weeks after the initial screening. After the second screening and if the results still indicates delays then the child referred. This step involves the permission of the parents/guardians to allow a professional (social worker) to come to the site and observe the child in his/her classroom. The social worker then consults with the teacher regarding activities/strategies to help the child meet his/her developmental potential. The social worker also set up a meeting with the parent/guardian to discuss the findings from the observation. If further services are needed, the social worker set up therapy services with a CPS school that is in range of the child's home. All the data that is collected, dates and results are placed in the computer, and documents are kept in each child's CPS folder.
Another individual that I worked with was an administrative assistant/teacher of one of the centers. She allowed me to review the assessment tool that the center uses which was Ages and Stages. In the assessment box, the assessments were separated by ages. The Administrative Assistant/teacher pretty much communicated the same screening process as the Executive Director. However, the Administrative Assistant/teacher provided more details regarding provisions that are made within the classroom. For instance, she shared that when completing a lesson plan, activities are created for students that requires more learning assistance to meet their learning needs. These activities differs from one child to another. For instance, one student requires language development while another requires cognitive activities. She also expressed that one of her students goes to speech therapy sessions twice a week at a CPS school.
During these interactions, I understand more of the importance of assessing for developmental delays. These critical time frames are a necessity to ensure developmental growth. As a teacher, it is important to use reliable assessment tools for assessing children because accurate results will provide children with any necessary services if needed.
It seems like you received a lot of information from the program director as well as the administrative assistance/teacher. I was kind of surprised that the amount of time for children to be screened is 30-45 after a child is enrolled. I worked in a preschool setting and before children are allowed to attend they must be screened and from there if services are needed it will be provided within the second week of enrollment. Also I was glad to see that children were screened twice. I think that funding plays an important role in how soon children can be screened. What were the ages of the assessment tools that you had the opportunity to review? What were some of the provision that the administrative assistance/teacher incorporated within her classroom? Is there any collaboration between the teacher and the speech therapist on activities that the child can do within the classroom?
ReplyDeleteI work in a Head Start and we use these assessment tools and they really help to identify delays but sometimes the child is able to do more than they let us know. This is why ongoing assessment is so important. I like to observe before I refer the child because they may not do task because they are shy or just refuse all together. I like the ages and stages because it gives me a chance to interact with the parent and get a idea of how they interact with thier child and also see the challenges they may have with thier child as well.
ReplyDeleteI think that by having assessment tools and tracking information on a computer program it assists with knowing what to teach the children and how to individualize education and including children with special needs.
ReplyDeleteWe use ASQ's and Teaching Strategies in the program I work for and these tools are very useful.
Hello Regina,
ReplyDeleteAdvocating for assessments is very important. It was interesting to read that after the child is screened twice a social worker comes out to observe the child. At my job after two rescreens they are referred to CPS for head start and early intervention for toddlers. I also agree that assessments are very important to detect delays, but at the same time I feel assessments are overwhelming to the teacher’s and the students. For example, in my center we use the Gold assessment. This assessment has 38 objectives, however within each objective it has about 3-4 dimension; basically there is over 70 observations that we have to conduct for each student. We have about three months to complete these observations, but many of our students need individualization and to individualize for each child it is tough. Nevertheless, I do understand that assessments are important because it allows us to track the child’s development for school readiness.
CPS is very unusual because they go strictly on numbers - if a child has this specific number they receive services if they are one number higher they don't receive the services. On any given day the child's scores can vary. It seems bizarre to have a set score for placement vs. a range of numbers and teacher input. What did they say about RtI?
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