Quotes about children and Note of thanks

The path of development is a journey of discovery that is clear only in retrospect, and it’s rarely a straight line.” ― Eileen Kennedy-Moore

 There was no need for a term like ‘magical thinking’ in the Golden Age of Man…there was only genuine everyday magic and mysticism. Children were not mocked or scolded in those days for singing to the rain or talking to the wind.” ― Anthon St. Maarten.

I choose these two quotes because of what development stands for and the need to allow children explore, especially in the area of play. I still feel that unstructured or creative play, which is diminishing mostly in the developed world, contributes so much to children development. Its importance should be reemphasised by educators who understand that it facilitates social interaction, higher cognitive development and creativity. 

Note of thanks.

I feel very happy to be in this class and I am particularly grateful to have amazing colleagues with same passion to help our little angels. It was a wonderful time of collaboration these eight weeks. I sincerely appreciate all that contributed to my blog starting from my dependable friends Towanda, Andrea, Jakaila and Keena who have been there for me since the first course. And to you my new friends, Carrie, Jennifer and Maria, your contributions have been meaningful. I pray that we continue to share knowledge for more insight that will help us be the best God expects from us. Once more thank you so much. Vivian.  

TESTING INTELLIGENCE

The whole child is about Biosocial, Cognitive and Psychosocial of the child considered simultaneously. Children intelligence are usually measured in different formats, such as

--IQ tests – focuses on how people perform on standardized tests which are designed to measure skills and knowledge you have already learned.

--Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III)- A test for children that provides separate measures of verbal and performance (nonverbal) skills as well as a total score.
In Nigeria, it is usually, Standardized tests: Designed to measure individual characteristics, Determine development and learning, Plan instruction and Study differences between individuals and groups, for guidance and counselling.

My advice is that children assessment be tailored to a specific purpose and should be reliable, valid, and fair for the purpose, policies should be designed to recognize that reliability and validity of assessments increase with children’s age, both content and the method of data collection should be age appropriate and be linguistically appropriate, recognizing that to some extent all assessments are measures of language. Additionally it is important to know that the younger the child, the more difficult it is to obtain reliable and valid assessment data and some conventional assessment should be postponed until children are older than 8.

Finally, conduct the assessment in a setting familiar to the child, Develop rapport with the child before beginning the session to relax them, liaise with parents on this and consider separate method for challenged children. Also note that intelligence comes in different ways and one test cannot measure it all.