Andrea Sambrook, MA - VTAEYC

Teaching to the Child,

Not to the Test:

Implications of New Research Data

on Designing Curriculum for the

Preschool Classroom

Andrea Sambrook, MA

Owner, Annette’s Preschool

Former Director of Research and Education,

Gesell Institute of Child Development

Learning Objectives

1) Understand the basic ages and stages of child development

for children ages 3-5, and name the factors which influence it

2) Describe the difference between chronological age and

developmental age

3) Use the preliminary results of the Gesell study and apply

them to practice in the classroom

Gesell Institute

of Child Development

Dr. Arnold Gesell

Gesell Institute of Child

Development

310 Prospect Street

New Haven, CT

www.gesellinstitute.org

Brief History of Arnold Gesell

and Gesell Institute

• Arnold Gesell, PhD, MD, 1880 - 1961

• 1911 founded Yale Child Study Center

• 1950 Gesell Institute was established

• First to systematically document and study child

development and discover stages of development

using cinematography

• “Father of Child Development” and “Father

of School Psychology”

• Origin of Gesell Developmental Observation tasks

“If we use effective tools,

the child reveals himself to

all who will stop and listen

to what he says, and who,

with seeing eyes, will

watch what he does.”

-- Dr. Arnold Gesell

Overview

• Characteristic behavior of 3-5 year olds

• Role of assessment in child development

• GDO-R / national study

• Data implications for practice

• Apply the findings to your curriculum

Questions…

• How does your present curriculum

recognize the ages and stages of

development?

• List 3 major goals you have for 3/4/5

yr olds in your program.

• List some activities with 3/4/5 yr olds

that you use to support these goals.

Gesell’s Ages and Stages of

Development

Ages 3 to 5

Characteristic Behavior

Gesell’s Spiral of

Development

Alternating patterns of

Equilibrium

and

Disequilibrium

approximately every 6

months in preschool

3 Years

• Leaving the “Terrible Two-and-a-half Year” old stage, children now love to conform: much more self controlled

• Cooperative and want to do things right

• Highly social time – more interested in other children than activities

• Uses the word “yes” and “we”

• Gives as well as takes

• Likes to share: objects and experiences

• More secure in his/her relations with others

Equilibrium

3 Years

• Increased motor abilities--likes running around and is good at it

• Has fun with language--tremendous increase in vocabulary and in ability to use language

• Moves positively to meet each new adventure

• Can adapt behavior according to environment

• Does not understand passage of time

• Becomes concerned if another child gets hurt

• May begin to stammer/stutter

• Beginning of fears – masks, dark

3 ½ Years

• Tremendous change

• Period of marked insecurity, disequilibrium, poor coordination

• Stuttering may occur

• Vision is changing, depth perception is off, difficulty going up and down steps

• Tensional outlets may be exaggerated – likes to hold things close for security

• Relations with others may become difficult

• Separation problems-fearful if Mom leaves, must physically see her

• Frequent verbal disputes with other children – will seek adult help

3 ½ Years

• Crying, whining and frequent questioning and complaining

• Emotional extremes

• Vivid imagination & inventiveness—a real capacity for pretend play

• Friends important--moving out of parallel play and into cooperative play

• More imaginary companions than at any other age

• Loves to play with language, make up new words, whisper secrets

• Can get upset by changes in routines

4 Years

• Tireless bundle of energy!

• Full of ideas

• Overflowing with chatter and activity, may hit, kick, throw stones, break things and run away

• Enthusiastic and imaginative, stage of “tall tales”

• Can be boisterous, belligerent and boastful, is tough, swaggers, swears and defies

• Emotionally loud silly laughter alternates with fits of rage

• Verbally “out of bounds”

• Secure, comfortable and brashly confident

4 Years

• Runs, starts, stops, moves around

obstacles with ease

• Throws a ball overhand

• Builds a tower of 10 blocks and bridge

• Walks a straight line

• Hops on one foot, pedals & steers with

confidence

• Climbs, jumps over objects 5-6 in.

• Forms shapes & objects out of clay

• Reproduces some shapes and letters

• Can seriate from largest to smallest with 3-4 objects

4 Years

• Can distinguish same & different

• Uses prepositions “on, in and under”

• Consistently uses possessives: hers, theirs, baby’s

• Elaborate sentence structure

• Begins to correctly use past tense

• Moods change rapidly, age of extremes

• Highly imaginative

• Beginning cooperative play, now has “best friends”

4 ½ Years

• Oppositional, uncertain, inconsistent & unpredictable

• Trying to sort out real from make believe

• Becomes quite confused & often demanding

• More self motivating, stays on task more

• Great “discusser”

• Concerned with details, likes to be shown

4 ½ Years

• Improving control, perfecting skills

• Beginning interest in letters and numbers

• Aware of front and back, inside and out

• A period of catching up for some

• Play is less wild

5 Years

• A time of extreme & delightful equilibrium

• Calm, friendly, not too demanding

• Content to stay on or near home base

• Does not seem to need to venture into the unknown or try things that are too difficult

5 Years

• Realist: Tries only that which he/she can accomplish

• Mom is typically the center of his/her world

• To be good is something he/she intends and can accomplish

• Satisfied with self and others are satisfied too

Child Development

Principles

• All children grow through predictable and patterned stages of development

• Growth in one domain may support or inhibit growth in another domain

• “Earlier” and “Faster” in NOT better nor is it possible

Child Development

Principles

• Stages include negative and positive behaviors, both of which help the child to grow and develop

• Unique rate and pace for each child, thus profile may be uneven

• Rate and pace is influenced by a variety of

factors – Child factors (heredity, genetics, temperament)

– Family factors (childrearing practices, nutrition, medical care)

– School factors (home/school connection, teaching practices,

social relationships)

– Community factors (poverty, social support systems,

neighborhood)

What are the common

types of assessment?

What is an IQ test?

• IQ test measures a person's cognitive ability

compared to the population at large.

• IQ is a standardized test, and 100 is the median,

or average, score.

• IQ test is not something for which a person can

study.

• IQ test does not measure the quantity of

knowledge but rather measures a person's general

intellectual ability to understand ideas, reason,

process information, and particularly the ability to

store and retrieve it.

• Problems with cultural bias, reliance on language

and use with very young children.

What is a

Readiness Test?

• Product oriented.

• Skill acquisition to date.

• Used for class placement and curriculum planning.

• Focuses on child’s level of preparedness for

benefiting from a specific academic program.

What is Developmental

Screening?

• Brief procedure(15-20 min) to identify if a

child may have a possible learning problem

or disability, and should receive more

extensive assessment.

• Standardized protocol observes child’s

abilities in language, reasoning, fine/gross

motor and surveys personal/social areas.

• First step in prevention, evaluation and

intervention process to help children

achieve full potential.

Limitations of Screening

Instruments

• Screening results should not be used to

diagnose or label a child.

• Screening test is not a readiness test.

• Screening test is not an IQ test.

• Screening tests should not be used with

multicultural communities if instruments are not

sensitive to cultural differences.

• Screening should never be done in isolation.

What is Developmental

Assessment?

• Longer session, more in-depth (40 min+ or

multiple evaluations over weeks)

• Confirms or denies concern or delay in specific

areas of development.

• Identifies specific areas of strength and

weakness.

• Can determine what type of problem exists and

possible causes.

• Can help propose remediation strategies.

• Standardized protocol and evaluation team

meetings.

Screening and Assessment

Source: Developmental Screening in Early Childhood. Samuel J. Meisels & Sally Atkins-Burnett, 2005.

What Is the Gesell

Developmental Observation?

Published —1925, 1940, 1964, 1979, 2011

Gesell Developmental

Observation-Revised (GDO-R)

• A performance-based, criterion referenced

assessment system for children 2 ½-9 years

• Results provide a Developmental Age

• Comprised of 5 strands:

*Developmental *Letters/Numbers *Numeracy

*Language/Comprehension *Social/emotional/adaptive

• Results also provide a Performance Level Rating

for each strand (Age Appropriate, Emerging, or

Concern)

Developmental Age

• Age which best describes the child’s

overt behavior and performance on a

developmental scale

• Developmental Age may be equal to,

older than, or younger than the child’s

actual chronological age

• Examiners receive training (3-day

hands-on workshop) to learn how to

use the GDO-R to determine a child’s

Developmental Age

GDO-R Tasks and Measures

GDO-R Tasks and Measures

Purpose of the Study

• GDO last updated with technical data in 1979

• Former research did not meet today’s APA

standards

• At one time, close to 25% of all Kindergarten

children in the U.S. were assessed with the GDO

• Current state and federal standards mandate more

research-based child assessment instruments

• Necessary to re-establish the integrity and national

standing of Gesell Institute

• Age of children in study: 29 - 63

• Child data on 17 of the 19 GDO ©2007 tasks (167 items)

• Child data on 70 new pilot items

• Parent data on child’s Home/Health/History and

Social/Emotional/Adaptive skills (78 items)

• Teacher data on child’s classroom behavior and

Social/Emotional/Adaptive skills (45 items)

• Psychometric support and statistical analysis

provided by Mid-Continent Research for

Education and Learning (McREL)

Method

N=53 sites across 23 U.S. states

Site Sample: Eligibility for

Free/Reduced Lunch

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Eligible for Free/Reduced Lunch Not Eligible for FRL

Children Eligible for FRL at GDO Study Sites

72%

28%

NOT Eligible

Eligible

Examiner Sample

• 101 Examiners participated

• 88% examiners hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s

degree

• Examiners were trained on standardized

administration and data collection procedures

for all GDO tasks

• Examiners possessed a mean of 7 years GDO

experience

• Sample n=1,287 children, age 3-6

• Sample of convenience (current GDO users)

Child Data Sample

Age Band

in GDO

Study Mean Age

(Years)

Chronological Ages of Children Included in Each Age Band

Sample N

3 3.08 2 years 9 months and 0 days – 3 years 2 months and 29 days

53


131


186


264


278


221


154

Child Data Distribution:

Sex

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

3 yrs 3 1/2 yrs 4 yrs 4 1/2 yrs 5 yrs 5 1/2 yrs 6 yrs

Male

Female

Pe

rce

nt

Age Band

Child Data Distribution:

Ethnicity

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Age 3 Age 3 1/2 Age 4 Age 4 1/2 Age 5 Age 5 1/2 Age 6

Not Reported

Other

Multiple Ethnicities

Hispanic

Caucasian (not Hispanic)

American Indian

African American

Pe

rce

nt

Age Band

Performance Level

Expectations

• Data Rubrics contain 3 Performance Level

Expectations by task

Not Yet Expected for age (< 50% age band)

Qualified Expectation for age (50-69.9% age band)

Solid Expectation for age (70% + age band)

• Refers to the percentage of children within each

age group that performed the task successfully.

• For reference purposes only; not used for scoring

Results: Performance

Expectations by Age Band

Results for three

GDO tasks

• Cubes: Gate

• Copy Forms: Triangle

• Incomplete Man: Body Line, Hair, Ear

Cubes Task

Gate

Results: Cubes

Results: Cubes

Cube Structure Built Solid Expectation

3 ½ years

4 years

5 years

• Manipulating a cube to create an oblique

angle is solid expectation by 5 years

Train

Bridge

Gate

Copy Forms Task

Copy Forms Samples

5 ½ yrs.

Results: Copy Forms

Form Copied Solid Expectation

3 years

4 years

4 ½ years

5 ½ years

Results: Copy Forms

• Manipulation of a pencil to reproduce a form requires

integration of fine motor and visual perception.

• Children still accomplish important developmental

milestones at same time; e.g., copying forms

• Can reproduce oblique lines of a triangle by 5 ½

Incomplete Man Task

Incomplete Man Samples

5 ½ yrs.

Results: Incomplete Man

Body Part Added

Spontaneously

Solid Expectation

Leg 4 years

Foot, Hand, Arm, Eyes 4 ½ years

Body Line 5 years

Hair, Ear 5 ½ years

Results: Incomplete Man

• Complex body parts such as Neckline, Hair and

Ear are added at 5 – 5 ½ years.

• Requires increasingly sophisticated manipulation

of pencil to add these parts to a pre-drawn figure.

Comparison of Selected

GDO tasks

GDO-R item Solid Expectation

Cubes:

Gate 5 years

Incomplete Man:

Body Line 5 years

Copy Forms:

Triangle 5 ½ years

Incomplete Man:

Ear and Hair 5 ½ years

Fine Motor:

Mature Pencil Grasp 5 ½ years

Results

• Three core developmental tasks on

GDO-R indicate that visual-motor

integration and fine motor skills

converge at 5-5 ½ years of age.

• These are developmental

prerequisites for the more academic

demands of school (reading, writing,

visual discrimination)

Conclusions

• Data renews the importance of

assessing developmental age in

order to design appropriate

curriculum in the classroom,

child by child.

• Demonstrates stability of

children’s growth through ages

and stages of development.

Conclusions

• Supports current brain research

which indicates that new

knowledge is built upon previous

knowledge as synapses are

strengthened.

Conclusions

• Confirms Arnold Gesell’s original

findings.

• Establishes reliability and validity

evidence for renewed use of the

GDO instrument.

Challenges

• N=4 states and the District of Columbia

still have late cut off dates for

Kindergarten entry (CA, CT, MI, VT)

• “Red shirting” or “holding out” a year

widens range of chronological ages

between students; may do the same

for distribution of developmental levels

• Training in use of assessment tools

varies across ECE programs

Implications for Educators

• Comprehensive assessments of

development provide critical baseline

information about a child’s capacity to

take on new academic challenges.

• Developmental observations of behavior

enable educators to predict “directional

signs” for each child’s growth in

synchrony with Common Core State

Standards.


• Sequence learning experiences

according to overall developmental level

of child, rather than chronological age

• Use developmental profile of child to

inform content and pace of curriculum

• Identify when a child’s visual perception

(oblique lines) and execution of fine motor

tasks (mature pencil use, completing

details of symmetry, copying a triangle

independently) converge to reveal a

developmental readiness


• Social and emotional behaviors can

be rated via Teacher and

Parent/Guardian Questionnaires to

promote appropriate and shared

expectations of the child’s

development at home and school

Questions…

• How might these findings impact the

goals you currently have for your

students today?

• How are the classroom activities in

your programs designed to

differentiate by developmental level?

Questions…

• How might these findings impact

your communication with parents

today?

Gesell Institute Today

• 2013 Educators Voice Award in the category of

Education Policy/Research. This award is presented by

the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.

• National ECE Training with US Department of

Education, Fall 2011 and May 2012

• Early Childhood LEADership E-Kit, March 2012

Dr. Marcy Guddemi;

Dr. Jacqueline Jones, US DOE;

Linda Calarco, Board President

www.geselle-kit.org

Sources

Gesell Developmental Observation-Revised Examiner’s

Manual (2011). New Haven, CT: Gesell Institute.

Meisels, S.J. (2005). Developmental Screening in Early

Childhood: A Guide. 5th Edition. Washington DC: NAEYC.

www.gesellinstitute.org

Learning Objectives

1) Understand the basic ages and stages of child development

for children ages 3-5, and name the factors which influence it

2) Describe the difference between chronological age and

developmental age

3) Use the preliminary results of the Gesell study and apply

them to practice in the classroom

Documents

Andrea Sambrook, MA - VTAEYC