Note of Professional Thanks

I would like to thank all of my class mates for their positive comments and encouragement. This class has been interesting and challenging in many ways that I have found frustrating. I have enjoyed reading everyone's blogs and discussions. I have found everyone's comments to be encouraging and positive.

 I want to thank Jewel and Leanitra for all of the wonderful information that they shared. Jewel I found your posts to be very informative. Thank you for sharing about your life with us. Leanitra I was inspired by all of your posts, thank you for sharing them with us.
Thank you to all my classmates, and good luck on all your future endeavors.

When I Think of Child Development

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the process as long as he lives.      

                                                                   Clay P. Bedford

It shouldn’t matter how slowly some children learn as long as we are encouraging them not to stop.  

                                                                  Robert John Meehan

There needs to be a lot more emphasis on what a child can do instead of what he cannot do.

                                                                     Dr. Temple Grandin

I chose these three quotes, because they represent my thoughts on children and their learning. We need to give children a chance to succeed regardless of any challenges that it seems they have.

Testing for Intelligence

When looking at the child as a whole it is important that we take into consideration all areas of development as well as the child’s culture. There are so many things that we need to consider when we are talking about children as a whole. I think that when we are considering children as a whole we need to consider the things that make them who they are. One of the things that I think should be assessed when discussing the child as a whole is responses to everyday things that mean something to the child. When assessing a child’s ability it is always about generic things that usually have no significance to the child. In order to get a true idea of a child as a whole we need to look at more than just what is occurring in a controlled situation. How does the child handle stress or challenges in everyday life? These are the things that we should be using to assess the child as a whole being, instead of individual pieces.

The way children are assessed and when, vary greatly from country to country. In researching when children are assessed in another country I chose to research Germany. In Germany children start formal education at the ages of 4-5, by five all children are to be enrolled in school. There is a push to postpone formal testing until the children are seven because the results are more accurate that way. As of 2013, a child’s first assessment in school was at age five when they start formal education.

One of the thinks that it is important to recognize and take into consideration is the fact that not all children can do well on assessments when asked to answer questions. This is something that I believe all professionals need to take into consideration when assessing children.