Infant Toddler Development Training
Module 3, Lesson 5

Introduction

This lesson will discuss the informal assessment of the child during play. Few areas of development are as critical for infants and toddlers as play (Casby, 2003). Play can serve as both the process and content of early intervention. Play also has a relationship to early social, cognitive, motor, and linguistic development (Casby, Linder 1990, Blasco 2001). Through transdisciplinary play assessment in natural environments, families and members of the assessment team can gather authentic information about the infant and toddler's strengths and needs.

The assessment of the developmental areas of cognition, communication, social - emotional development and motor development will be briefly discussed in this lesson. Although the developmental areas are discussed as domain specific, it is imperative that you keep the following point in mind. Infant and toddler development is interdependent and while one area of development may be the primary target for assessment data, skills from other areas may be assessed at the same time.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, the participant will be able to:

1. Describe strategies for assessing infants and toddlers with disabilities
2. Define informal strategies for assessing cognitive development
3. Explain informal strategies for assessing motor development
4. Identify strategies for assessing communication skills
5. Discuss strategies for assessing social competence
6. Identify the benefits and challenges of arena assessments

Resources

The following resource is necessary for the completion of this lesson. Learners may wish to access and print a hard copy of the resource prior to beginning the lesson for future reference.

• Assessing Young Children for Whom English is a Second Language
• Figure 1: Running Record Observation

Key Words

Definitions of key words are found in the glossary.

• Phonology
• Pragmatics
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Morphology
• Arena Assessment

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