Ongoing Child Assessment in Home-Based Programs

Ongoing Child Assessment in Home-Based Programs

Emmy Marshall: Hello everybody. Good afternoon, and welcome to this installment of the Home Visiting Webinar Series. Today we're going to be talking about ongoing child assessment in home-based programs, and I'm really happy today to be co-facilitating with my colleagues from the National Center for Early Childhood Development Teaching and Learning, Donna Ruhland, going to be co-presenting. And we're going to have Judi Stevenson-Garcia as our chat facilitator. So, got you a team today. Thanks for coming in.

I see everybody's introducing themselves and where they're from. It's so much fun to see people coming in and people from all over the country and introducing yourselves and your Head Start and Early Head Start programs. So, I wanted to talk a little bit, you probably heard this before, about our Adobe Connect features. So, you've already found the chat box. And I just want to let you know that you know the evaluations that you do at the end, we do listen. We have heard that we have this wonderful problem of having lots and lots of people on the home visiting webinars and that sometimes the chat box just goes really, really fast.  

So, we have — we want to respond to your pointing that out to us by saying that we're going to summarize the highlights from the chat box today, and we're going to post those highlights in the MyPeers Home Visiting Community, along with a copy of today's recording. So, we are being recorded, and then you can see below the chat box that you have a copy of the slides that we're going to be using today. If you happen to get disconnected, sometimes we are having a little bit of connection problems, again, because of our wonderful problem of having so many people participate, but if for some reason you get bumped off, just go right back into that same link and come on back in to this session.  
We do ... Again, there's evaluation link that will be placed into the chat box when we wrap up today. It's also on the slide. So, if you will go in and complete that evaluation, we really appreciate it. We want to try to listen to what you have to say in the evaluation. We use that for planning future sessions. And then after you complete it, you'll be able to download a certificate of completion. And if there's more than one of you at the computer, just forward that to your colleagues. They can do the same thing and complete the evaluation and also receive that certificate of completion. OK, let's get started.  

We have had requests from a lot of you to talk about assessment, and so we've spent some time really trying to pull together some information that we hope you'll find useful. So, let's get started. So, as you know, there are many dimensions to ongoing child assessment. And we do have our Head Start Program Performance Standards that provide us with a lot of guidance on doing ongoing child assessment in home-based programs. So, there's many aspects that we use assessments to assess children for suspected, or identified disabilities, for reporting child outcomes.  

There's an aspect of assessment when we want to talk about how to share information – or sensitive information – with families. We want to think about what type of assessments are appropriate for dual language learners. We use assessments sometimes for referrals to services and individualizing services. And we want our assessments to be culturally responsive. So, out of all those many dimensions, we cannot cover all of them today, but the aspect that we thought was most unique for assessment in home-based programs, which is exactly what we're talking about today, is how you can do ongoing child assessment in a collaborative, or partnership manner, with families.  

And then also spend some time talking about what are the characteristics of tools that are a good fit for that collaborative approach. So, as I said today, we have Donna Ruhland with us here, and Donna has experience, quite a lot of experience, with both screening and assessments in home visiting programs. So, Donna, I was wondering if you could just tell us the ... To ground us and get us started, what's different between screening and assessment?  

Donna Ruhland: Well, Emmy, thank you for having me join this webinar. I want to say that screening is like a snapshot. It's just a moment in time, just as if you take that picture, it's just that moment in time. Whereas assessment is ongoing. It provides a good view of what the children are learning over time, where they're at now, and what they're likely to do next, or to learn next. Assessment involves observing and making mental or actual notes of what's being observed in order to support ongoing developments of the child. You know, the word assess actually comes from the Latin assidere, which means to literally sit beside the learner.  

Emmy: I love that definition, Donna, I can see how sitting beside the learner fits so well with the purpose of home-based programs. The home visitor needs to sit beside the parent and child and encourage the parent to sit beside their child. So, this origin of assess can really lead us to have a whole different perspective on how we think about assessment, if we think about assessment as sitting beside the learner, it becomes more in aligned with what we're doing and what our purpose is. And I think this can really impact how we do our work and how we carry out assessment.  

So, that makes me think about, you know, getting the parents involved in assessment and observing their children's development made me think about a research from the Home Visiting Research Network that ask parents why they enroll in home visiting programs. What are they trying to get from home visiting programs. And 98% of parents said, "I want my child to learn, to be smart, and to do well in school." And then a really high number also said, "I just want my child's life to be better than my own."  

So, in my mind, this is such a perfect match for our goals of Head Start home-based programs. We want parents to know what their role is in helping their children learn and be smart and do well in school so that becoming observers of their children's development every day and throughout the week and not just when the home visitor is there, is something that we can really build on with our ongoing assessment. And another study that talked to families about parenting, and this is a 2008 Institute of Medicine study, it's called, the report is called Parenting Matters, and they found that the very top factor for programs that were most effective were programs that treated parents as partners.  
So, I think that we should really take this to heart and look at our work with parents as collaborative and as a partnership.  

Donna: You know, Emmy, I think that most of us know how important it is that we treat parents as partners. It's one of those things, though, that's often easier said than done. Maybe it would help to know that in a review of Early Head Start research on effectiveness in home visiting, it was actually found that visits focusing on child development had the highest parent engagement, as well as the strongest outcomes. These child development focused visits produced greater parental support for language development, higher overall scores on the quality of home environment, and higher cognitive gains.  

So, knowing parents wanted to be — that they want to be treated as partners, that the visits focused on child development have the best parent engagement and strongest outcomes. We can see that partnering on ongoing child assessment is a way to engage parents in their child's developments, and that allows us all, too, better meet our programs' goals. You know, we already plan home visits and group socializations jointly with families. Integrating a joint assessment process seems a very logical next step, and a great opportunity to support the parent in becoming the observer of their child's development. Couple this with you're guiding them to see their critical role, their important influence on that development, and you have a really powerful combination.  

Emmy: We know that from talking with a lot of you home visitors at face-to-face regional trainings, and from some of the posts that we've seen on MyPeers Home Visiting Community, that there are a lot of home visitors that are already taking advantage of this partnering aspect of our work in ongoing child assessment. But I'm trying to think about people that maybe this might be sounding pretty different from what you're currently doing, so let's take a little bit of time and talk about how do you move to a more collaborative process with parents.  

So, one of the things that we're thinking about, and we've had like an expert work group that's been meeting to talk about ongoing child assessment at home-based to look at what information we can provide, and one of the things that we talked about was just the term itself, that it sounds almost like, it sounds like something that would happen in school, like a quiz or a test, and it may not be the most family friendly of words.  

So, if we think about what we just heard about the root word of assess, to sit beside the learner, if we could start thinking about how we talk about assessment and how we present that information to families, that might help us move along in a more collaborative way. We're not going to stop using the word assessment, that's — that's part of our services, but just to think about some more family-friendly ways. So, we presented this, what are some family-friendly terms for assessment to another group of home visitors, and we took the words that they provided and we made this word cloud.  

So, if you can see some of these words that your peers came up with, some of these things like reflect, curiosity, illuminate, understand, reframe, and then the one at the top, and this just happened to show up on top, this is all kind of random — celebrate. You know, that when we're observing and we're sitting beside the parent and the child, we can observe and celebrate each step of the way along their development. So, I think just stopping to think about how we talk about assessment is something that just that simple act of stopping to think about how we are saying assessment and how we're presenting it to families, that that can actually help have them feel more comfortable.

So, one of the things that I was thinking about, you know, when we're first meeting with families, and we're establishing our relationship and we're telling them about our services, what about including their role in ongoing assessment at that point. That's not something you bring up later, but just to talk about that as a way we're focusing on child development and how the parent can support that child's development, and here is a tool that we'll be using to follow that development. What do you think about that idea? What do you think, Donna?  

Donna: I think that's a really great idea. So, they would make it a point, a solid point, to include ongoing child assessment as a collaborative process when describing the program to potential families. So, you would let them know how becoming observers of their child's development in order to support their development is really, well that's really what the program is all about. It seems like a very good idea to include the information about parents' role in ongoing assessments in the orientation material when you're going over the parent's role in the program.  

Emmy, I think that most home visitors already begin their weekly visits by asking, "What have you noticed about your child's development over the last week?" "What moments, aspects, milestones in their development have you gotten most excited about?" "What would you like to see your child do next?" We only really need to connect these questions to the assessment process itself. We can explain how this is ongoing child assessment. And depending on how collaborative the program decides to be, parents could make note of their observations during the week and then it could become part of the assessment data.  

Emmy: I love those — I love those questions, Donna. I just think that, you know, I do believe that most home visitors start out their week and then also wrap up the visit when they're talking about the next week of, you know, what do you think's going to happen and, you know, when you do this activity during the week? Or what do you want to see happen? And I think that, like, where you get excited about, to me that is like the best question to just get really a lot of juice flowing around what's going on and the interaction and the home visit, and then building that excitement for what the family and child can be doing over the coming week. So, those are really exciting to think about. But I was wondering if you have any other ideas like what have you done with the families you've worked with in the past that, some other ideas for collaborating with parents.  

Donna: Well one idea, I'm collaborating with parents on developing like portfolios or family albums, that's a really great place to start helping parents see ongoing child assessments is really observing and recording, preserving, celebrating, and feeling really good about accomplishments. You really could simply start out by looking at photos together and asking what the child is doing in the photo, really build on that with them. From there then maybe moving up to even viewing videos together.  

Some parents may be interested in using videotape to record both parent-child interaction and their child's development. Some may feel more comfortable with this approach than others, it really can be a valuable learning tool for parents, as well as a good way to observe development and document development. We're going to show you an example of a child counting a second set of blocks, and watch how she answers and starts to count that second tower. It's really interesting to see. And I do want to note for you, remember that the audio for videos can only be heard through your computer speakers. So, if you're listening on the conference call line you'll need to mute your phone and then turn on your computer speakers so you can hear the video.  

[Video begins]  

Woman No. 1: One. 

Woman No. 2: One. Woman No. 1: Two. Woman No. 2: Two. 

Woman No. 1: Three.  

Woman No. 2: Three.  

Woman No. 1: Four.  

Woman No. 2: Four.  

Woman No. 1: [Speaks Spanish] One. 

Child: Five.  

Woman No. 1: No. One.  

Child: No. Two.  

Woman No. 1: [Laughing] One.

Child: No.  

Woman No. 1: [Speaking Spanish] Sí  

Woman No. 2: [Speaks Spanish]  

Child: One.  

Woman No. 1: OK. One.  

Woman No. 2: [Speaks Spanish]  

Woman No. 1: Two.  

Donna: OK, and hopefully you saw that. I know it was a really quick video. But as the child was counting and they wanted to continue to that second tower and count from the beginning she kind of pointed back. So, she really understood counting in that continuum. And that was something that you really could catch watching the video together and talking about it after the fact. So, we're going to show another clip, and as you watch this second one, take note of what the parent may be able to observe about their child and look at it as if you're the home visitor sitting beside the parents with two children.  

[Video begins] 

Child: [Inaudible]  

Parent: One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and popped out ...  

Little girl: [Inaudible]  

Parent: Came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar. She's very hungry.  

Woman No. 3: Oh I think, and you can look for the sun. Where is the sun? [Inaudible] 

Woman No. 3 Look this is the sun and you can put it right here.  

Parent: And where is the tiny caterpillar, Kevin? Can you look for it.  

Kevin: It's right here and right here.  

Parent: OK.  

Woman No. 3: Oh that is. 

Parent: OK.  

Woman No. 3: A caterpillar.  

Little girl: [Inaudible]  

Woman No. 3: He's getting hungry.  

Parent: He started to look for some food. Look for some food now. On Monday he ate the one apple.  

Woman No. 3: One apple. 

Parent: One apple.  

[Video Ends]  

Donna: So, I think this is a perfect example on what you can pick up through videotaping. The father was very focused on looking at the book with the children and looking at ...Trying to really focus them on what they were talking about. But did you see when the girl picked up the butterfly then near the end and started to flap the butterfly's wings, because dad was focused on the book of course, that's something that may have been missed all together if we didn't have that video clip that was really capturing that moment.  
So, it's really ... Videotaping is such a powerful tool, and so helpful in thinking about development. You know, for parents who are hesitant about being individually videotaped, they may feel more comfortable if their child was recorded more in a group setting, such as socialization. They may enjoy watching and observing in this way and that will help them build that comfort level with the idea of being recorded during home visits.  

Emmy: I love those ideas you've shared, Donna, and I was just imagining what this could be like with the collaborative process, and then even though we shared this slide back in the beginning, and I said, you know, we're going to focus on just one aspect of ongoing child assessment, that collaborative piece, but then while you were talking, it made me realize that when we have established this collaborative partnership and made families more engaged in the process from the beginning, then when we do need to have conversations about development, then it's going to be easier because we're already used to having those conversations.  

So, for instance, if we were going to talk to families whose children are dual language learners, if we look at an assessment it might show us a different trajectory for dual language learners, and we need to be able to tell the parents, well, you know, this is OK because your child is learning two languages and this is going to really payoff in their cognitive and other development in the long run.  

So, families are more used to us sharing that type of information with them. Or even when we might have something that we feel like needs to be made a referral for further evaluation. If we have a concern, or the parent has a concern, then we've already laid the groundwork for those types of conversations to take place. So, I think that that can be really helpful for us. So, if parents are involved all along, then we have more of an even playing field, to discuss concerns that might come up.  

So, I'm thinking even though we're just focusing on this collaborative aspect, that really it impacts all these other dimensions of assessment as well. So, one thing that comes up when we're talking about collaboration with parents and partnering with parents on assessment, is whether or not families' observations are reliable. Could you share what you know about that, Donna?  

Donna: Sure. Emmy, you know, there was a study that was done by Snyder and colleagues. They found that in their study that 73 pairs of professionals and parents had very, actually very high levels of consistency and agreement about child's development and behavior when they completed the same instruments, of course, in the same way.

Although congruence and observation might be important in some situations, current perspectives on early childhood assessment suggests that both parents and professionals have important information to share about their children. The most important factor is that parents' perspective is valued and respected. A strong relationship between the parent and the home visitor in that collaborative relationship will make the sharing of information and ability to acknowledge and discuss differing views more easy over time.

Emmy: So, even if you're having differing reviews, if I'm understanding you correctly, then that just becomes part of the conversation. And that actually that could be a stimulus for a conversation. So, it's not necessarily a bad thing to have a little bit ... It's not always black and white, that there may be gray areas there that can be just a really good grounds for discussion. And I've seen some of those articles, too, about the reliability of family observation. Sometimes they overestimate, and sometimes they underestimate. But we've also found that professionals pretty much do the same thing.  

So, it's really good to hear about that. So, what about data that is collected to inform program decisions? What would you think about that?  

Donna: Well, Emmy, it's important to note that parents can have a role in both the informal, as well as formal pieces of the ongoing child assessment. It's up to each program to make the final decisions on the roles of parents in the assessment process. For example, for assessment data that is being collected for program outcomes and ongoing quality improvements, the home visitor will need to, of course, input the data into the program's data collections system.  

For observations that are made to individualize home visit plans, the role of the parent can be more paramount there, with the parent collecting observation information throughout the week and then sharing that with the home visitor during the weekly visit. And again, having that rich discussion that you talked about, Emmy, with the findings. I think this webinar has offered thoughts for a collaborative and joint effort in assessment. And then, depending on the program's policies and procedures, then it should be determined what the extent of the parent's role would be in each program's assessment process.  

Emmy: That makes a lot of sense. It is up to the program. As a matter of fact, I'm seeing a lot of sharing of information in the chat box about some people feel like their tool can be collaborative and others feel like theirs cannot. So, I'd like for us to do a poll, if we could pause here, and let's get some information about this. If you could share how collaborative is your ongoing child assessment now. So, let's see what we get here. All right, so we've got a really good response rate. We still have a little bit coming in, but let's go ahead and broadcast the results now. 

So, we see that, we're not a bad place, we're somewhat collaborative. So, that means that parents are giving his or her input on several items. We have 26%, it's going back and forth, around 25 to 26% that say that they are mostly collaborative. So, parts of the process are conducted by one or the other. So, and then even with highly collaborative we have 44 people that said that their process right now was highly collaborative. So, we're going to ask a little bit more of those of you that responded highly collaborative, we'd like for you to share the name of the tool that you're using in the chat box, if you would. If you feel comfortable doing that. So, of the number that said that their process was highly collaborative, what assessment tool are you using?  

All right, so we're seeing CORE, BRIGANCE, HELP. A lot, a lot, a lot of ASQ, which ASQ in the ... Is more frequently used as a screening tool. We have heard from home visitors in other programs as well that that is a very good tool for talking with families about developments. So, thank you so much for sharing that. Let's do one more – let's do one more poll before we move on. If your assessment is barely collaborative or not collaborative, could you share in the poll one of these responses? What are the barriers that prevent this from happening?  

OK, so you can see our responses here. It's got a bit of a scattering, but it seems like, "The tool we used isn't designed to be very collaborative," is out front. And then it's really encouraging to hear so many responses that says, "I would love to do this, but I'm just not sure how to involve families in the assessment process." So, thank you so much for participating. I do feel like that it is a process, like everything that we do. So, no matter where you are in the process, there is always steps you can take to move it into being more collaborative.  

And I think it starts with that, the intention and the desire to do that. So, thank you so much for sharing those. I'd like to do a recap. We've been talkin' about the collaborative process, so we wanted to spend about half of our time today talking about that. As parents become better observers of their child's development, they can become more involved in being responsive and they can also become better at managing their expectations. So, they'll know if they're involved in this process, sort of like where their child is and what to expect at certain times and then what to anticipate.  

So, we're really helping parents gain skills in observation and so that just really meets the goal of the home-based programs, to get parents to see how what they do every day is promoting a child's learning. So, this is just a really good tool. We can just consider this as a tool to use when trying to achieve our Head Start goals. So, I think it's helpful to know, we have had conversations about what is the best assessment in home-based programs in the Head Start community, for a good amount of time. It continues to come up as a topic that people want more information about.  

So, I was able to go to a home visiting summit, the National Home Visiting Summit, earlier this year, and I heard home visiting experts talking about this very topic, and I found out that there had been a study led from home visiting researchers at Chapin Hall, and originally began with the Pew Home Visiting Initiative for the state. But their intent was to look at what are the best measurements in home visiting? Because there are an array of tools. But what are the best ones? So, they did a research and they compiled all of the tools, and they released a report late in 2017, and they were not able to narrow that list down very much. They came up with 21 parenting measures and 12 child development measures.  

So, we're not going to go over all of that today because it's not like it's a report that says this is what everybody should use. But it's another opportunity like some other resources we'll share that you can look at and see what they came up with and what they have to say. So, we'll go over some other resources, like I said. But the purpose of this here is just to know that it's an issue in our field and there are not any easy answers. But we are moving that great big old boulder you see there in front of you.  

So, what are we using right now? This is the program information report data from last year – from 2017. And I thought, because there are more home-based programs in Early Head Start, I thought that we might see some differences between the statistics for Head Start and Early Head Start, but they're really pretty equal. This is data for center-based and home-based programs because right now the PIR data is not broken out by center-based or home-based. So, just gives us an overall picture of what programs they're using. So, for wherever helpfulness that might be there, just wanted to share that.  

So, it might be interesting, I said I wasn't going to do anymore polls, to do another poll. If you're satisfied with your current assessment tool ... No just to ask how satisfied you are with your current assessment tool, sorry. Somewhat satisfied, seems to be out front satisfied looks pretty good. Very satisfied. We have quite a number of people that are very satisfied. So, here we'd like to put you on the spot if you're very satisfied with your assessment tool and you don't mind sharing that, can you type that into the, to the chat box?  

If you're very satisfied with your assessment tool. OK, so we see Galileo, CORE Advantage, Galileo again. BRIGANCE. Oh there's questions though. We really like HELP. OK. TSG, AEPS, DRDP. OK, so we're seeing a smattering. So, we want to see like ... There's different people are satisfied with different tools. I think that this really speaks to what you're doing at your site, at your program, to make it work. So, I think it maybe speak more to your process than to the actual tool, so I'm not sure. But interesting question to throw out there anyway. OK. Donna, do you have some information that you can share about what types of things we need to look at when we're looking for family-friendly assessment tools?  

Donna: Sure, thanks, Emmy. We have heard from a number of programs that have both home-based and center-based programs, that they use the same tool for both. Having a general idea of child development and tracking it over time is important in home-based programs and useful for, of course, planning group socializations. But the individualization in home-based programs also includes promoting the home as a learning environment and using family routines, family activities that go on throughout the day, offer opportunities to support a child's development in ways that are interesting, enjoyable, fun, for the child and family.  

So, we need to consider whether the same assessment tools that are useful for a classroom are equally useful for home visiting, and vice versa. As an example, in order to be useful in promoting secure parent-child relationships in the home as a learning environment, it's important to have assessment tools that identify small progressions in developments, so that those small successes can be noticed and celebrated along the way, that the tools are easy to understand for parents, and so reduction of jargon and those kinds of things, and easy to use. And that they're appropriate for the home environment. 

And just think about the difference between a home and a classroom in considering those tools. Some of the questions that might be really helpful, Emmy, to guide practitioners in determining if they're using a family- friendly assessment tool, are under sensitivity. So, are there enough items to really identify those small increments, so the small celebrations along the way to see progress. And then is it easy to understand? Is it easy to use? And will it work well in families' homes? So, those are just some of the general questions to think about.  

Emmy: OK, that's helpful. And need to point out, too, that of course the Head Start Program Performance Standards that cover screening and assessment for center-based and home-based programs, and also the standard talks about the assessment for individualization. So, I think you already covered these, that they need to be valid and reliable. So, the next thing that, in this performance standard, is to be conducted by qualified and trained personnel. I think that's something that we need to think about if we're looking at partnering with families and we're collaborating with them, what's the tools say, like how — how does the tool say that it needs to be administered?  

So, I just wanted to point out and go back to the performance standard for that to make sure that we do need to follow, you know, the way that the program is designed, the way that the assessment is designed. And then of course, needs to be age, developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate, and appropriate for children with disabilities. So, just those reminders from our performance standards. And then there's cost, staff training, and these are both initial and ongoing costs that we want to take into consideration. And then another element, of course, is how well it aligns with the curriculum, because the curriculum is providing the foundation for our activities and supporting parent-child interaction. So, then if we're assessing it we need to make sure that it's assessing what we're working with the families with. So, another reminder and another dimension of this.  

Donna: A lot of you may already be familiar with the work of Dr. Stephen Bagnato. Dr. Bagnato led a major research project in 2010, which resulted in a review of hundreds of tools, and the rating of 54 tools that met a set of eight criteria. The results of that study have been published in research journals, and in the 2010 edition of LINKing Authentic Assessment and Early Intervention. It is important, though, to note that this information is from 2010, and, you know, a lot can change in eight years.  

But for home visiting, we're really interested in the criteria that had been identified in this study. But there are particularly three of those criteria that are very important to our work. So, three of the areas sited, the first is collaboration, second evidence, and the third is sensitivity. With collaboration, one thing you'd want to ask, and we've been talking about collaboration quite a bit, but think about whether the materials promote the input of parents and other professionals. So, some of the tools will have an actual area or suggestions for that information, where others may not.  

Then, is the content jargon-free and parent friendly? So, that parental input is facilitated, is easier for parents to provide their input. And then are assessment procedures designed for parents to be able to do, in assessing their children. Is it easy for them to use and record? And then for evidence. So, thinking about the evidence, and this would all be in the brochures and the guidance documents for the assessment tools, have there been field validation and norm referencing studies completed?  

So, how was the research done for the tools? Do you see demographics in those tools that are reflective of the families that you are working with? And finally, sensitivity, which we've talked about, having enough items in the tools, so that you can see those smaller celebrations and gains. So, how well does the sequential array of assessment items detect differences in child functioning or what the children are doing? And then are there enough items within that skill sequence to again celebrate those small gains? Several of the tools that we saw when Emmy referred to the PRI data were included in the review that Dr. Bagnato, and his colleagues, conducted.  

So, one of them, the CORE, so child observation record, that looks broadly at all areas of development. It uses a strength-based approach. He identified in the study that rather than looking at deficits or narrow skill acquisition, having that strength-based piece is important. And then parents are encouraged to participate in the process, though it's not a requirement. So, that is what Dr. Bagnato and his colleagues found. Another tool that we saw in the PIR data, that was reviewed, is the desired result developmental profile, and that tool recommends that observations from parents be gathered to inform the assessments.  

So, there's actually a document that goes into the importance of family observations. And that's available on their website. And if you download the PDF of this webinar, you'll be able to find that address for that website. And they also look at the Galileo, and that was in our PIR data. So, Bagnato and colleagues had this to share, and you'll see that quote on the screen, but, through the parent center, parents can be involved in assessing progress using those observations and reporting evidence of skills. So, it's another one that shows that participation, collaboration with parents.  

Also reviewed is the Ounce Scale. And we have several quotes about this. But you look at some of those key pieces, the tool offers a holistic, so that holistic approach of child's developments by observing behaviors in natural settings. They go on to say that it's family-friendly language. Both perspectives are included, and the family album component is organized by area of development. Have many questions that are more probing, looking at age-level expectations, and examples of how children might demonstrate those skills to help further break those down. They also looked at the HELP, or Hawaii Early Learning Profile, and you'll see the quotes there from that work. So, there's an encouragement for parental involvement.  

The HELP is organized along a developmental continuum to help really facilitate the discussion between parents and professionals about the child's developments. There are family-friendly definitions and information about why a child might be having difficulty in certain areas of development. Actually, too, Emmy, when this research was conducted by Dr. Bagnato and colleagues, it actually took place before the TS Gold was developed. So, we don't have any information on that tool from the Bagnato study.  

Emmy: Donna, that was really helpful sharing that information that's been collected. I know that that was a very extensive study and then it was a consumer validation report so that information came from people that are in the field. So, that was just very helpful information. I know another source of information that I really like to go to is Lori Roggman and her colleagues wrote "Developmental Parenting," and they have a chapter on assessment in that book. And two of the tools they mention in that to be family friendly are The Ounce and the Hawaii. So, we see that same type of information that you just shared about the Ounce having parents actively involved in observing their children and to work collaboratively with practitioners.  

And then also with the HELP, I think that the comprehensive, sequenced list of skills that – that sensitivity that you referred to earlier as one of the characteristics that Bagnato and his colleagues looked at. So, that sensitivity of really looking at detailed steps or breaking down the domains of learning into smaller steps is really important, especially because there's so much that's going on very early in development, especially with infants and toddlers. So, that's really helpful to know what our experts are saying, and our colleagues, our [Inaudible] colleagues.  

So, I want to go over some resources that are available to us. This one is on ECLKC. It's, 
"Resources for Measuring Services and Outcomes in Head Start Programs Serving Infants and Toddlers," that has the type of information that we've been going over that you should look for in your, what you want to know about assessment tools. Again, this is the most current thing that we know of and it is from 2011. So, I know, for instance, like the validation study on HELP just came out. It's just going to be published, you know, in the next month or two.  

So, things are changing, so if there's a particular tool that you're interested in, I do encourage everybody to continue to look for other sources of information that are even more up to date than what we currently have. But these are very comprehensive directories of information. So, there's still a lot of good information here. We also have one for working with children ages 3 to 5. So, it has the same type of information that they collected on these tools. So, this might be something that you want to check out. And there's a lot of information on assessment, onongoing child assessment on the ECLKC. And one of the ones we wanted to point out was this using the ELOF to inform assessment.  

So, this is something that helps make decisions about assessment and what tools will be a good fit for your program. And this is something, of course, that you would want to have a team and leadership involved in this process, but just wanted to remind everybody that these resources are up on ECLKC. And another one, "Ongoing Child Assessment System Profile," and this is designed as a, well, it's actually a part of a larger toolkit called The Learning From Assessment Toolkit, and this profile is a checklist that helps programs think through how you're doing with your assessment implementation process. And then of course, wanted to let you know about an app that's coming for home visitors.  

We already have the ELOF2GO app for education staff. And we're going to be releasing an ELOF@Home app that's designed specifically for home visitors, so have at your fingertips the ability to look up the different domains of development and share it with families and where they should be. So, that can become a tool in your ongoing child assessment toolkit. So, we have been having conversations on the MyPeers Home Visiting Community about ongoing child assessment leading up to this webinar.  

So, if you're not a member, I really encourage you to go to this link and – go to this link and join MyPeers because you can ask your colleagues questions about, you know, what they're using and how it's working for them. You can share resources. So, we can go there and continue the conversation about assessment. And like I said, when you go in, there's a box where you can search "assessment," and all the posts that have been already placed on the community will come up, so you can find out about those conversations that have already taken place and then of course we'd like to have some ongoing conversations about this.  

So, I want to thank everybody so much for your participation today. I do want to take time before we close up and shut down for you to go ahead and go into that evaluation link and share your thoughts about how helpful the webinar was today. There's a question to share what you would like to see in the future, and so please share your thoughts there. You're a big part of making this webinar series a success. So, thank you all. 

Close