Australia is the only country in the world that regularly collects comprehensive information about the holistic development of children entering their first year of school. Known as the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), the data gathered from this work guides national and state policy. These types of measurements are useful for the…

For children age birth to five, physical, cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional growth and development occur at a rapid pace. While all children in this age range may not reach developmental milestones (e.g., smiling, saying first words, taking first steps) at the same time, development that does not happen within an expected timeframe can…

It is difficult to get a good grasp of the topic of kindergarten entry assessment because there are such great differences in the purpose for the instruments, how they are constructed, and how the data is used. Even so, in many states and communities, there is cause for concern. Until the paradigm of education moves from a preoccupation with…

This paper delineates general validity and research questions that are underlying an ongoing program of research pertaining to the Early Development Instrument (EDI, Janus and Offord 2007), a population-level measure, on which teachers rate kindergarten children's developmental outcomes in the social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and…

The 2007 reauthorization of Head Start requires Head Start programs to use child assessments and developmental screeners that are developmentally, linguistically, and culturally appropriate, as well as valid and reliable in the language in which they are used. This can be a challenge, since very few child assessment tools are developed or tested…

The Infant Monitoring Project is designed to identify infants in need of further evaluation, by having parents complete a set of questionnaires about their infant's development at four-six month intervals. Evaluation of the questionnaires has shown that they are low-cost and have substantial agreement with standardized assessments. (Author/JDD)

Describes the Knowledge of Child Development Inventory (KCDI), a multiple-choice test of knowledge of child development from birth to age three in the areas of emotional, cognitive, physical, and social development. Normative data, reliability, and validity statistics are given. (Author/BL)

Reports on the current status of the Child Development Project (San Ramon, California). States that major concerns focus upon validity of measures and criterion validity. Notes that there are indications that the program is being implemented and children's attitudes are being affected. Predicts additional teacher questionnaire measures and the…

Two forms of the Battelle Developmental Inventory, intended for use with handicapped and nonhandicapped children ages 0-8, are examined. The instruments measure personal-social, adaptive, motor, communication, and cognitive skills, for use in screening, diagnosis, identification, assessment, and program evaluation. The paper discusses test…

Describes the rationale and development of a new screening test, Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning-3 (DIAL-3), which is based on previous editions. Empirical research is presented to document item additions and deletions as well as the continued maintenance of three performance areas: motor, concepts, and language. (Author/CR)

Provides an overview of the development of the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), the nature of the instrument and conditions for its proper administration, and issues underlying the use of the NBAS in research (e.g., reliability). The first in a series of articles in a single monograph assessing the NBAS. (BH)

Development and use of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) and its instruments in the Netherlands, Flanders (Belgium), and the United Kingdom are reviewed, with emphasis on the validity of the developmental theory behind it. The CBAM appears to make it possible to offer schools assistance in dealing with change. (SLD)

The development of an experimental measure for assessing growth in movement in children (ages birth-3) is described. Results from the use of the Movement General Outcome Measurement with 29 infants and toddlers demonstrated the feasibility of the measure. The 6-minute assessment was found reliable in terms of inter-observer agreement. (Contains…

This edition covers the basics of screening used to identify which children may have learning problems or disabilities. It offers advice for selecting an appropriate screening instrument and for setting up a screening program. The book contains reviews of current developmental screens, plus an entirely new annotated bibliography. For the first…

Describes issues which are common to all research methodologies and some that were unique to the assessment techniques used in the Child Development Project (CDP) in San Ramon, California. Looks at the limited amount of time given assessments and the "fluid" nature of measurements. Notes that CDP issues involved observations,…