A Key Component to Quality Care: Observation and Assessment

     

Learning child observation skills can be a powerful tool for solving some of the most important problems faced by child care providers. Concerned about how to discipline a child? Want to know how to plan successful activities? Observation skills can help.

With a checklist of developmental milestones and skills, you can check off behaviors you've seen in a child and leave the others blank. A good checklist covers physical, social, emotional, language, and cognitive development. Good checklists are divided into different age groups. One that describes the skills of three- to five-year-olds together may be less helpful than one that lists characteristics of each age separately.

Your careful observations may help you find a way to better involve, for instance, a withdrawn child in your child care program. You might notice that when the child hears music he moves closer to the group. You might use this information to plan some appealing music activities that may be interesting enough to draw the child into participating. It is best not to force a withdrawn child to participate, so finding activities that are exciting can be very helpful.



You might share this observation with the parent. Find out what music the child enjoys at home, and maybe use it in an activity for all the children.  This might start a great conversation between you and the parent about what their child enjoys. You can use this information to help build your connection with the child.

Observation is a valuable tool for solving your child care problems. Learning to be a good observer can help you find real solutions that create a successful child care for each and every child.

Inform parents that they may visit your center at any time (this is required by licensing). You can suggest good times to visit or observe a special activity, or times that are least disruptive to the children. Some centers use a handout covering observation guidelines. Talk with parents before their visit about what they would like to see. Allow parents an opportunity to talk to a staff person about what they observed and ask questions.

Related online training:
A Key Component to Quality Care: Observation and Assessment
Traditional Washington STARS Continuing Education Online
Washington STARS Credit: Observation and Assessment [4 hours]
Washington Core Competency: Ongoing Measurement of Progress [4 hours]
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