At this age it is particularly important to observe and play with the child, alongside gaining information as to what they can do independently in their educational setting and how they play and behave with others and play on their own.
The assessment will shed light on the type of mediation and support that the child responds to and that teachers, parents and peers need to give to help the young child make further progress. Using the information gained from the assessment to adapt the environmental factors, the behaviours of others around the child, alongside specific strategies for the individual child, enables the child to make the next steps in achieving the desired change.
Specifically, assessment with the early years child includes focusing on:
- Social behaviour, attachment with important people in their life
- Health, including vision and hearing
- Independent skills eg dressing, eating with cutlery
- Gross and fine motor skills
- Beginning of reasoning with language, use of language, phonological awareness
- Beginning of perceptual reasoning, and drawing representations of aspects of the world around them
- Sensory Processing
- Curiosity levels, the child’s interests
- Emotional awareness: labeling emotions and understanding of emotions
- Development of the Theory of Mind: the ability to see and/or appreciate situations from another’s point of view, different form their own
To view a diagram of the Early Years Process, please click on the image below.
