When I Think of Child Development

Children are all different and uniquely beautiful, they are now growing into the individual they are on the inside, just give them the opportunity to know, understand, and be involved and the child will bloom with their true colours in the garden.

Testing for Intelligence?

    If we are looking at a child holistically, we have to keep in mind every area of a child’s development; it is not only the mind of the child that is important though the mind plays a vital part in the other areas of development of a child. These areas of development would include cognition, physical, social. Under these developmental areas they are subdivided into specific focuses such as, brain development, motor skills, language, thought processes, self-image, being able to get along with other peers. These and more are all vital in the assessment of a child, reason being is that everything about that child is taken in to consideration; such as the environment they live in, the family dynamics, which play vital roles in the development of a child. Depending on the progress of development being made within a child, would therefore reflect upon the environment in which the child lives.

In Barbados, my home country, the assessment of school aged children is done on the basis or deportment, getting along with others, caring of property such as desks and chairs, though the assessment is usually based on Mathematics, Grammar, Composition, Science, Art, Religious Education, Physical Education. Despite all these factors are taken into consideration from 6 till 11, at the age of 11 in order to go Secondary school (High School), an exam is done which only encompasses English, Mathematics, and Composition, which does not give a representation of a child’s ability altogether. This exam assesses a particular ability of the child, and does not assess the child as a whole which at times works to the child’s disadvantage.

Though testing a child on what they learn mostly from a book, is not a bad thing, it cannot be the only way of assessment. As stated above in Barbados though those may be the formal way of a assessing a child, a teacher would usually take observations of the child and relate it back to the parent, since the a child may be excelling in school work, that same child may be falling short in their social skills.