Development Milestone

CD 352 Developmental Milestone Assessment

The Why: Overview of the Purpose of the Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to determine developmental influences that may be contributing to young children’s behaviors and relates to Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP’s) 3 criteria in the following ways:

1. What you know about how all children develop and learn

*The checklists items themselves serve as reminders of how children in a particular age should be developing, growing, and learning.

2. What you know about the strength, needs, and interests of individual children

*The completion of the checklists by the teachers tells you about the specific children about whom you have selected to write. Normally, CD 352 students would make these observations across the semester themselves as they interacted personally in the classrooms, filling in any gaps, as needed, through teacher interviews. The teachers have taken this step for you to provide you with the information on these specific children’s strengths, needs, and interests.

3. What you know about the social and cultural contexts in which children live

*The case studies provided on each individual child provide you with important social and cultural information about the children so that you can have a “larger lens” in trying to understand and know them as you complete this assignment.

When students can identify where young children are developmentally and know who they are socially and culturally, it can be easier to connect to the reasons for behaviors that seem challenging and better assess how to provide guidance in appropriate ways.

This assignment also highlights the responsibility educators have in conducting ongoing observational assessments to guide appropriate interactions with young children.

The What: What You Will Use and Gain from this Assignment

Skills: This assignment will help you practice the following skills that are essential to your success in this course, this field, and even in your own personal lives.

* Making inferences based on developmental checklists
* Objective language
* Strengths-based language

Knowledge: This assignment will also help you to become familiar with the following important content knowledge in this discipline:

* Normative developmental milestones
* Typical behaviors of young children
* Developmentally appropriate guidance strategies

The How: Procedure

Students will view eight CDC’s developmental milestone checklists and link the assessment to behavior and guidance.

To complete this assignment, you should:
1. Read the 4 attached documents. Each attachment includes a brief description of the classroom environment and two completed “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” checklists and background information on the two children for that age category.
· two-year-old case studies

· three-year-old case studies

· four-year-old case studies

· five-year-old case studies

2. Choose two case studies, which each include information on 2 children, a boy and a girl. You will complete the remainder of this assignment using your chosen case studies. You will, thus, have a total of 4 children (ex. 2 three-year-olds and 2 five-year-olds) to review and determine how development may be contributing to challenging behavior.

Layout and Content of Paper:

· Follow APA guidelines for Level 1, 2, and 3 Headings, as demonstrated below. Reference the site below for guidance, and be sure to NOT copy examples below verbatim, NOT include instructional material in the body of your paper, or leave OUT necessary information referenced in parentheses of the headings of your paper. For example, in this Level 1 heading formatting example below, the expectation is that you will insert each child’s first initial and age and NOT retype (child’s initial and age) in the heading itself.

· https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/headings

Case Study Review for (child’s initial and age)

Developmental Summary

(Summarize the child’s development based on the completed Learn the Signs. Act Early. All developmental domains should be included. Include strengths and possible red flags (causes for concern that have been noted) in your description. This should be objective.)

· Example from an infant classroom: One year-old Joseph enjoys exploring new toys by banging objects together and finding hidden toys. He is beginning to say a few words and gestures his wants and needs to his caregivers. He plays games such as peak-a-boo and patty cake. He finds it difficult to cruise along furniture or get into the standing position without an adult’s help. Crawling is challenging and he is dragging one half of his body as he scoots across the floor. Joseph is unable to pick up small items such as bites of food using a pincer grasp and bring to his mouth or use a spoon to self-feed.

Developmental Influences on Behavior 

(Based on the child’s development and teacher report, summarize what you believe are possible developmental influences that could be contributing to behavior challenges in a minimum of 5 sentences. Explore connections between the challenging behaviors and the child’s current level of development. Ask yourself “What skills has the child not yet achieved that might be contributing to the challenging behaviors?” For example, if a child has red flags in communication, he/she may not understand verbal instructions and nonverbal communication or may be frustrated with his/her lack of expressive ability and act out accordingly. The red flags in communication may be expressive language delays (the child is unable to use verbal language effectively and having trouble problem solving with peers).)

You will complete the above case study review for your chosen four case studies, two for each of your selected ages.

Development Reflection

(In this section, paragraph 1, address, with a minimum of 5 sentences, the following question: How is the awareness of typical developmental milestones important for guiding interactions with children? In paragraph 2, respond to the following question with a minimum of 5 sentences, using at least one example from the case study as support: How would your awareness of a child’s developmental delays influence your interactions with the child?)

Criteria for Success

1. Paper is formatted in the following manner:
a. 12 pt. TNR font
b. Double-spaced
c. Microsoft word
d. Guidelines discussed above are followed (2 headings, required number of paragraphs, thorough responses, etc.)
2. Case study summaries and reflection are thoughtful and reference specific developmental milestones and challenging behaviors.
3. Grammar and spelling errors should be minimal to non-existent (use Word and online tools and resources available to you to help proof)

4. Review the rubric for details on grading PRIOR to grading.

Developmental Milestone Rubric

Excellent

Average

Needs Improvement

No Marks

Case Study 1

1. Provides a thorough explanation of the child’s developmental abilities overall, specific to each developmental domain; 2. identifies strengths and possible red flags in objective manner; 3. makes inferences on how development may contribute to challenging behaviors. (8)

Student is missing key information or did not provide a thorough explanation from one of the requirements in the excellent column. (5)

Student is missing key information or did not provide a thorough explanation from two of the requirements in the excellent column. (2)

Student’s description is brief, overall non-specific, does not make inferences, and does not show knowledge of developmental milestones and challenging behavior. (0)

Case Study 2

1. Provides a thorough explanation of the child’s developmental abilities overall, specific to each developmental domain; 2. Identifies strengths and possible red flags in objective manner; 3. Makes inferences on how development may contribute to challenging behaviors. (8)

Student is missing key information or did not provide a thorough explanation from one of the requirements in the excellent column. (5)

Student is missing key information or did not provide a thorough explanation from two of the requirements in the excellent column. (2)

Student’s description is brief, overall non-specific, does not make inferences, and does not show knowledge of developmental milestones and challenging behavior. (0)

Case Study 3

1. Provides a thorough explanation of the child’s developmental abilities overall, specific to each developmental domain; 2. Identifies strengths and possible red flags in objective manner; 3. Makes inferences on how development may contribute to challenging behaviors. (8)

Student is missing key information or did not provide a thorough explanation from one of the requirements in the excellent column. (5)

Student is missing key information or did not provide a thorough explanation from two of the requirements in the excellent column. (2)

Student’s description is brief, overall non-specific, does not make inferences, and does not show knowledge of developmental milestones and challenging behavior. (0)

Case Study 4

1. Provides a thorough explanation of the child’s developmental abilities overall, specific to each developmental domain; 2. Identifies strengths and possible red flags in objective manner; 3. Makes inferences on how development may contribute to challenging behaviors. (8)

Student is missing key information or did not provide a thorough explanation from one of the requirements in the excellent column. (5)

Student is missing key information or did not provide a thorough explanation from two of the requirements in the excellent column. (2)

Student’s description is brief, overall non-specific, does not make inferences, and does not show knowledge of developmental milestones and challenging behavior. (0)

Development Reflection

The reflection on how development should guide adult interactions with children and how your increasing awareness of the child’s developmental status would influence your interactions with children was thoughtful and thorough. The student included on example from the case study to showcase how development influences interactions. (10)

The reflection on how development should guide adult interactions with children and how your increasing awareness of the child’s developmental status would influence your interactions with children was emerging but lacked depth of knowledge or did not meet length guidelines.

OR The student did not include an example from a case study, or the example provided did not showcase how development influences interactions. (7)

The reflection on how development should guide adult interactions with children and how your increasing awareness of the child’s developmental status would influence your interactions with children was emerging but lacked depth of knowledge or did not meet length guidelines.

AND The student did not include an example from a case study, or the example provided did not showcase how development influences interactions. (3)

The reflection on how development should guide adult interactions with children and how your increasing awareness of the child’s developmental status would influence your interactions with children did not meet the objectives of this assignment. (0)

Mechanics & Formatting

No mechanical errors (grammar, spelling, formatting) that make the assignment easy to read and understand. (8)

Some (1-3) mechanical errors (grammar, spelling) that make the assignment somewhat difficult to read and understand. OR The student did not follow formatting requirements found in “criteria for success.” (4)

Many (4 or more) mechanical errors (grammar, spelling) that make the assignment difficult to read and understand and/or the student did not follow the formatting requirements found in “criteria for success.” (0)

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