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Parenting
with Gary & Anne Marie: Preschool
Developmental Placement - A Key to School Success
Contributed by Robyn Vander
Weide
You've paid your dues. From
teething to T-ball and zippers to phonics, you've covered all the bases. You've
invested five years in getting the little guy up to speed socially and academically.
Now you're on the home stretch. He's turning five this summer, and boy, are
you ready to sign him up for school. Without a doubt you're ready, but is he?
The education of your child
from kindergarten to high school graduation is a thirteen-year marathon. Successful
endings are very much tied to successful beginnings, which for children start
during the preschool years, when parents are shaping habits of the mind and
heart. We have discussed how to get your child ready for school, what general
and specific skills to work on, and how to prepare your child for reading, writing,
and arithmetic. We will now address a weighty and often misunderstood subject
affecting your child's academic success-developmental placement. This is a key
to school success and an important subject for parents to understand.
Simply put, developmental
placement assumes a child has the greatest chance for success in school if he
begins when he is developmentally ready. This means that starting formalized
school, such as kindergarten, should be based on a child's developmental age
rather than his chronological age. Educators who adopt this philosophy believe
that children should begin school, or be placed in a particular grade, not by
their birth date, but by an evaluation of their mental, social, emotional, and
physical ages. Taking this approach up front can save everyone a more difficult
situation later.
Dr. Arnold Gessell, an educational
researcher from the early twentieth century, studied children from birth through
sixteen years of age. He compiled lists of average behavior at each six-month
interval. Today, educators continue to use Dr. Gessell's observations to help
evaluate a child's rate of development. This evaluation, or developmental testing,
often takes places prior to entrance to kindergarten.
During developmental testing,
a child is given a series of tasks. A trained evaluator observes how a child
approaches and completes the tasks. The evaluator can then determine if his
developmental age is similar to his chronological age, a little older than his
chronological age, or a little younger than his chronological age.
The How of Developmental
Testing
Since the 1950s, a variety of tests have been developed to determine children's
developmental age. Many private schools use these tests to determine readiness
for kindergarten. The tests measure development in several areas. The first
area is adaptive behavior. How well can a child look at a model and reproduce
it? The model may be three-dimensional (such as blocks) or two-dimensional (such
as copying geometric shapes or completing a drawing of a person).
Another area that is measured
is language development. Some of the activities may include answering simple
questions, following simple directions, identifying items in pictures, repeating
a series of numbers, and recognizing letters and numbers.
It is also important to
evaluate children's gross and fine motor skills. A child's physical development
is related to his readiness to read. Can he balance on one foot, hop on one
foot, throw and catch a beanbag? Also, how well does a child handle a pencil
or build with blocks? Does the child do these things in a way that is like the
average four-, four-and-a-half-, or five-year-old?
The evaluator giving the
test has a number of materials that help her accurately determine a child's
developmental age in each of the areas tested. She also is able to gather information
and make observations about your child's social and emotional development. All
of this information helps the school and the parents make wise choices about
when a child is ready to start kindergarten.
How Can I Prepare My
Child for a Developmental Test?
The answer to this question is "Don't!" You should prepare your child
for school, but not for a developmental test. A developmental evaluation is
not a test that your child will pass or fail. It is an opportunity to gain valuable
information about your child's rate of development and how he responds in that
type of situation. Yes, you may feel nervous and want your child to do everything
perfectly. But you need to remind yourself that you are only at the beginning
of the long road of formal education. You need to look at the facts regarding
your child's development rather than pushing him to a readiness level by performing
on a test that will not be reflective of how well he performs in a classroom.
Remember, your goal is for your child to enjoy school and be able to achieve
his full potential.
A developmental test is
a very special opportunity to take a peek inside your child's life. You get
to watch how he thinks, solves problems, and responds to a variety of tasks.
If you train him to do these tasks for the test, you will not have increased
development, merely taught an activity. Also, you will have missed out on a
wonderful opportunity to get some valuable information about your child's rate
of development.
Let me share a personal
example. I began giving developmental tests about five years before my children
were born. By the time my first child arrived, I had tested several hundred
children. I had seen what a special time this was for both parents and children.
For about forty minutes (the length of the test), parents watched their child
answer questions and perform tasks. Some of the tasks were familiar; some were
not. Parents saw whether their child was calm or nervous, quiet or talkative,
passive or active. Parents learned how their child related to the evaluator
and how dependent their child was on the parents to help with or approve of
the work completed. All of this is important information in assessing a child's
rate of development.
After I became a parent,
I knew that when my child was approaching kindergarten age, I wanted the same
opportunity. I wanted to observe my child taking a developmental test. I knew
the value of the testing situation, and I didn't want to skew it in any way.
I never talked to my children about what was on the test, or let them touch
or play with any of the testing materials. Consequently, my husband and I enjoyed
very informative testing situations with each of our children.
Article
by Gary Ezzo / Anne Marie Ezzo
