Understanding, Describing and Assessing Children’s Development: A Workshop for Teachers, Parents and Significant Others in Children’s Lives
We are pleased to provide the presentations from the workshop entitled, “Understanding, Describing and Assessing Children’s Development: A Workshop for Teachers, Parents and Significant Others in Children’s Lives”. The workshop was held on Thursday, May 24 as a “track day” prior to the annual conference of the Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia (ECEBC) on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The co-sponsors of the workshop along with ECEBC were the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), ECEBC, the Psychoeducational Research Training Centre at UBC (PRTC) and the Institute for Research in Early Childhood Education at UBC (IECER) and the Infant Development Programs of British Columbia (IDP of BC). The conference presenters included a team of early childhood educators, elementary school teachers, professionals in the health and mental health fields and university professors who shared their visions on the many different formal and informal ways of assessing children’s cognitive, language, and social-emotional development.
The workshop was an exciting, thought-provoking and stimulating day of presentations and discussions with an audience of approximately 200 delegates, including parents and professionals interested in children from birth to 8 years old. The participants included preschool and elementary teachers, childcare staff and community-based workers in health, infant development, and other related areas.
The workshop provided participants with the opportunity to learn, question (and argue!) throughout the user-friendly series of discussions and presentations. Participants learned about the advantages, and disadvantages of using different kinds of formal and informal assessment measures. Hillel Goelman, Associate Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership greeted the delegates and introduced the keynote speaker, Laurie Ford. Dr. Ford is an Associate Professor in UBC’s Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education and gave a marvellous kick-off to the workshop with her very enlightening presentation entitled, “What We Can Learn About Assessing Young Children From Pooh and Tigger Too”.
At the end of the day the audience actively participated in the panel discussion, Gaps & Links in Assessing Young Vulnerable Children. Delegates first met in small groups to discuss issues that had arisen throughout the day, and then engaged in a dialogue with panel members regarding both the current situation in early childhood assessment as well as identifying future directions in both practice and research. The consensus among conference participants was that there was a strong need to continue to focus on communication. Teachers, early childhood educators, and parents must continue to share information, concerns, and suggestions regarding the assessment of young children. This is especially crucial across the various professional, institutional and disciplinary boundaries. In addition, participants voiced strong support for mounting a similar workshop on early childhood assessment in 2004.
We would like to thank ECEBC and their Board of Directors, and in particular Chelsea Whittle Miller, Diane Tannahill, and Joyce Branscombe of EventAbility for their support and enthusiasm in presenting this exciting event.
We gratefully acknowledge the administrative and logistical support provided
by:
| Debbie Gajdosik and Jennifer Keres in Network of Centres and Institutes in Education UBC | |
| Jo-Anne Chilton, Chris Elliott, and Kieran Ryan at the Office of External Programs UBC | |
| Paul Darquin and the Audio Visual Department at the Faculty of Education UBC | |
| Barbara Goyer, CHILD Project Coordinator with the Human Early Learning Partnership | |
| D’Anne Rathie, at the Infant Development Programs’ Office of the Provincial Advisor | |
| The workshop could not have happened were not for a very successful collaboration of the ECEBC, HELP, PRTC, IECER and IDP of BC!
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| Presentations | Speaker |
| Keynote Address: What We Can Learn About Assessing Young Children From Pooh and Tigger Too |
Laurie Ford, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, UBC |
| Fostering Children’s Social and Emotional Competence: Effects of the Roots of Empathy” Program on Development | Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, UBC |
| A Background/Historical Context of Assessment among First Nations people | Lisa Sterling, UBC |
| Teachers’ Assessments of Vulnerable Children in the Early School Years |
Claire Crosthwaite, Vancouver School Board |
| Assessing Cognitive Development in Vulnerable Children: Infancy to Early School Age | Ruth Eckstein Grunau, Centre for Community Child Health Research, UBC and BC Research Institute for Children’s & Women’s Health Centre of BC
Julie Petrie-Thomas, Children’s & Women’s Health Centre of BC; UBC |
| Pediatric Developmental Assessment of Preschool and School-Aged Children: The Role of the Front-Line Worker | Jill Houbé, BC Children’s Hospital
Barbara Fitzgerald, Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children; UBC
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| Misunderstanding Misbehaviour: The need to look beyond the child in assessment and intervention planning | Georgina Robinson, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, UBC
William McKee, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education, UBC |
| The Early Development Instrument (EDI) — A tool for Mapping Children’s Readiness to Learn in British Columbia | Michele Wiens, Human Early Learning Partnership |
| Food Fairs to Feuerstein: How We Construct Immigrant, Aboriginal, and Marginalized Children | Marilou Carrillo, Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children |
| Assessing the Emotional Development of Vulnerable Infants | Mary Lee Best, Allan Cashmore Centre |
| Using the Woodcock-Johnson III in the Developmental Assessment of Young Children | Laurie Ford, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education, UBC |
| Understanding the Transition of Vulnerable Children from Preschool to Kindergarten Preschool Consent Form Preschool – Kindergarten Transition Form Transition Books |
Maureen Docharty, Vancouver School Board |
| Screening for Risk and Developmental Delays: The Public Health Nurse’s Role | Susan Dahinten, School of Nursing, UBC and Lydia Drasic, Fraser Health Authority |
| Assessing Vulnerable Children in Kindergarten – Politics, Publishers or Best Practice? – Collecting Evidence for Kindergarten |
Marianne McTavish, BC Primary Teachers’ Association |
| I Consented To This Assessment, So Now What? | Georgina Robinson, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education UBC
William McKee, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education UBC |
| Panel Discussion: Introduction | Hillel Goelman, (UBC/HELP) Dana Brynelsen, Infant Development Programs of B.C. Maureen Docharty, Vancouver School Board Mary Lee Best, Allan Cashmore Centre William McKee, Psychoeducational Research and Training Centre, Faculty of Education, UBC |
