Carrying out an assessment: what you need to know
Assessment of children in the early years can help you to recognise a development delay.
The assessment process
Children will develop at their own unique rates and not every child will follow a “typical” pattern of progression of development, this however does not limit a child’s ability to make progress or take away from focusing on the child’s individual strengths.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets out information and requirements in relation to proactively observing and assessing children as it is crucial to building your understanding of the whole child and their individual characteristics, skills and interests. Assessment of children in the early years can help you to promptly recognise any gaps in learning and allow you to implement appropriate support at the earliest point, ensuring the needs of both the child and their family are met.
Types of assessment
Starting point – an initial assessment, completed with parent and or carer views when a child begins attending your setting. This is not included in the EYFS and is not a statutory requirement.
Formative assessments – this is your ongoing assessment and is vital in the learning and development process. It involves you understanding your children’s interests, what they know and what they can do, and then shaping teaching and learning experiences for each child reflecting that knowledge. This includes observations, which is the continuous process of noticing what a child knows, understands and can do in order to build knowledge of each individual child. There is no requirement in the EYFS to keep written records in relation to the formative assessment.
Summative assessments – these are often written at predetermined points of the year and provide you and the parents and or carers with a summary of what the child knows, understands and can do at a particular point in time.
There are two statutory summative assessments that take place in the EYFS:
Progress check at age two – when a child is aged between two and three, you must review their progress, and provide parents and/or carers with a short, written summary of their child’s development in the three prime areas.
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile – at the end of Reception Year, each child’s level of development must be assessed against the 17 early learning goals (ELGs) set out in the EYFS.
There is another statutory assessment point within the EYFS, the Reception Baseline Assessment, which is a short assessment completed within the first 6 weeks of a child starting Reception Year. A score will be given for each child, which will be used as the basis for an accountability measure of the relative progress of a cohort of children through primary school.
Support for all children in your setting starts with the careful planning and delivery of a high-quality curriculum, and effective ongoing observation of children’s learning and development. For any child who needs more help to progress, you should adapt your approaches, teaching, learning and play to meet individual needs. If a child with potential or known SEND then needs further support, they will benefit from a more detailed assessment of their progress, in line with the assess, plan, do, review cycle (the graduated approach). It may be through your observations and assessments you recognise that a child is not meeting the expected developmental milestones. It is through this early recognition that we can implement effective support for children.
You can learn more about delivering an ambitious curriculum and effective assessment for all children in the Early years child development training (EYCDT) Module 7: Effective curriculum and assessment; and more about the graduated approach and how you can support children with differences and needs in Module 8: Supporting individual differences and needs.
Language of assessment
When recording observations and assessments for a child with SEND it is beneficial to use strengths-based language.
Aislinn independently chose puzzles from the toy unit today by leading me by the hand to the shelf and pointing to them. I helped her to put them on the table where she began trying to fit the peg puzzle pieces into the slots. She kept trying different ways before looking to me and banging them on the table to indicate wanting support, together we were able to slot the puzzle pieces in. She then pointed to the latch board on the shelf, when I gave this to her she smiled and focused on this self-chosen activity for three minutes before noticing the train track on the floor and going to collect the red trains.
Child: Aislinn Practitioner: Charlie Date: 27/02/2024
As you can see, this observation has captured what the child was able to do and how they expressed themselves and communicated their need for support throughout the interaction. When observing children with SEND, you may also find it helpful to note how what you have observed is relevant to the child’s individual needs.
Observations like this could be recorded in any format you prefer (notebook, clipboard, online journal system). It is useful to make note of the important learning that you observe, which can include characteristics of effective learning, the Leuven scale (see further reading) or other support tools you feel are beneficial for reviewing the child’s development. What you observe, and your knowledge of the child, will be crucial when using the tools in this guidance, formative and summative assessments. It is important to remember that observation and assessment should not involve spending a long time away from interacting with children.