Quote of the Day

	One service that is an integral and essential component of child care is the assessment service. It is also a service that is often seriously misunderstood. This paper attempts to explain the evolving role of assessment beginning with ... The Case of the Spilled Spaghetti. (Scene: Larry, age 6, and Irwin are eating dinner. Larry is getting as much food on the floor as in his mouth. His mother, Rhonda, looks on). Irwin: (speculating that Larry may benefit from visual-motor coordination exercises): How would you like it if I taught you a way to eat more neatly? Rhonda: (in despair): He knows how to eat properly. He used to, but for the past few weeks he's been spilling. Irwin: (wondering whether Larry may be regressing due to some recent anxiety provoking event): Have you noticed the same thing, Larry? Are you spilling more than you used to? Larry: At day care I don't spill. Rhonda: He hates me! Irwin: (hypothesizing that spilling at home may be a device for antagonizing Rhonda): How come you spill at home, but not at day care? Larry: At day care my teacher makes me clean it up. Rhonda: Good idea! You can clean your spaghetti off the floor right now. (Larry cleans up the spilled spaghetti and resumes eating but not spilling. On follow-up two weeks later, the spilling had not re-occurred. Rhonda and Larry were pleased with the outcome. Case solved). The above story, based on a true incident, illustrates the use of research oriented assessment. In the course of the assessment, three hypotheses were formulated to explain the problematic behaviour: visual motor problem, anxiety problem, and disturbed child-parent relationship. In the process of testing these hypotheses, a fourth hypothesis was presented by the child himself: logical consequences needed to be used in this situation. A treatment method, used to test this hypothesis, was found to be successful. One may ask whether this process demonstrates assessment, as no formal tests were given. However, each question was a test of an hypothesis. One may suggest that research was not involved since there were no statistical data. Nevertheless, the verbal responses of Rhonda and Larry are data, as are the changes in Larry's eating behaviour. Assessment may, but does not always need to, involve formal testing or numerical data.
	IRWIN F. ALTROWS Altrows, I.F. (1983) The Discovery of the Child: The critical role of assessment in child care. Journal of Child Care,1(3)pp.65-66