Developmental Assessment

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Documenting observations is a key component in Galileo Pre-K Online. In order to document your observations using the appropriate, please access the above-mentioned video link.

How do children benefit from developmental assessment?

The capabilities that children acquire when they are young have a profound effect on their future. The experiences provided to them at this time have a tremendous influence on the development of these capabilities. For these two reasons, it is vital that teachers and parents are provided with information that helps them to understand how children learn and develop. The most effective way to gather this information is through developmental assessment.

Developmental Assessment is the process of discovering what children can do and how they do it.

It is used to:

Document growth in terms of a child’s level of development, interests, needs, strengths, and pace of learning.
Provide a portrait of the whole child with regard to her/his social, cognitive, and physical development.
Help develop curriculum and plan learning opportunities that are purposeful and have goals.
Share a child’s accomplishments and readiness for new opportunities and experiences with parents and families.

It is important to keep in mind that developmental assessment is quite different from other types of assessment. Here are some examples:

Screening Assessment: Used to identify children who may have learning difficulties, handicapping conditions, or who may be at risk for developmental delays.
Diagnostic Assessment: Used to identify specific learning and adjustment disorders so that decisions such as referral and placement can be made.

Path-Referenced Assessments

The scales in Galileo use path-referenced assessment. Path-referenced assessment helps us view the child in terms of her/his progress along a developmental path. The path can be in language, math, science, art, motor, social or emotional development. The construction of each path in Galileo is based on research about how children construct knowledge.

Each path in Galileo is like a map, displaying capabilities from concrete to abstract, easy to difficult, and simple to complex. We can look at the map and find out where we are, where we want to be, and how to get there. The scale, which is developmentally sequenced, will tell us where the child is currently, and what skills she/he needs to learn next to advance. Below is an example of a path from the Literacy Knowledge and Skills scale. As you can see, there are many steps on the road to having early writing skills, starting with simple scribbles and ending with writing complete words.

Quick Start Guide

Teacher's Quick Start Guide, this is a how-to document that outlines the components of the Galileo Pre-K Online and the Storyteller G3 curriculum and how to use them in an easy Q&A format.

Scope and Sequence

The Galileo G3 Assessment Scales for preschool children provide a detailed sequence of goals which children are likely to master during birth to five years of age. For additional information, visit the Scope and Sequence page.

Last Updated: 10.05.18