EC-S2: Ability to gather, document, and share information about the performance of individual children in all developmental domains under the direction of a licensed professional.

Introduction

This unit focuses on the skills you need to effectively observe and monitor children’s behavior, growth, and development. The purpose of monitoring growth and development is to determine whether or not children are making progress toward individual goals. Progress in specific skills and growth within developmental domains is linear, which means that as children age, skills tend to increase. Skills also tend to be aligned hierarchically within domains and are somewhat interdependent. As a result, it is critical to monitor whether or not skills are being learned and maintained. It is also important to assess and monitor children’s challenging behavior. As you learned in the previous unit, early childhood educators must often address the needs of children who engage in challenging behavior.

One method for evaluating and monitoring skill acquisition, performance, and behavior is observation. Observational data collection and record-keeping can take multiple forms and be accomplished in many ways. This unit will cover several methods that might be used in an early childhood setting. Observation can be used for monitoring and assessing growth, development, and challenging behaviors. Observing and recording children’s behavior is often a primary role of paraprofessionals in both center- and home-based programs. Paraprofessionals who have well-developed observation skills will be invaluable to the teachers with whom they work, because monitoring children’s behavior and progress on objectives is an essential part of providing early childhood services.

Objectives

As you read the objectives for this unit, think about and rate your current knowledge using the following scale.

1. I do not understand this.
2. I do understand this.
3. I understand this well enough to use in my work.
4. I could teach others about it and use it in my work.

• Describe why observation and data collection are necessary in the early childhood setting.
• Use various data collection techniques to gather information about children’s behavior and development.

The Para eLink is sponsored by the Minnesota Paraprofessional Consortium, in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Education, located at the Institute on Community Integration in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota.

E-mail us with questions and comments about this site.

© 2001-2003 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
This page last modified
URL
Online Privacy Statement