A comprehensive and meaningful assessment in early childhood requires understanding the family context, including knowledge of the family language and culture, gathering developmental information from parents, and conducting home visits with parental approval. This principle applies to all youth and families, but is especially important for children whose families may not share the language or some of the economic advantages of the dominant culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Understanding family expectations and experience places a child's behavior in context and can prevent harmful decisions that result from misinterpretation of assessment data. Younger children present some complex challenges and require flexible procedures for collecting meaningful and useful assessment information. Constitutional variables such as tiredness, hunger, illness, and temperament can easily obscure a young child's abilities. Time of day, setting, test materials, and other situational factors also affect performance. The younger a child is, the more likely he or she is to fall asleep, feel distressed, refuse to follow directions, or be distracted by assessment tasks. Practitioners should be prepared to modify activities, explore alternative procedures, and/or reschedule rather than risk gathering incorrect information that compromises assessment results. Young children learn by doing and demonstrate knowledge and skills through action-oriented activities. Authentic assessment of youth as they participate in daily activities, routines, and interactions generally yields the most valuable information for assessment. To the extent possible, assessment methods should allow for the observation of young children engaging in spontaneous behavior in familiar contexts and with familiar people. More ratings and data does not necessarily translate into better rating information. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Early childhood professionals should collect only the information they need and know ahead of time how they will use all the information collected. It is generally more desirable to identify a set of appropriate methods and tools that provide the necessary information and to refine the use of these procedures over time. Some assessment tools and procedures are better than others. Factors such as purpose, content, reliability and validity, efficiency, cost and availability of professional development are all more important than attractive packaging and effective advertising. Of primary importance is the quality of the information collected and the decisions made following the evaluation. Ultimately, any evaluation we conduct should benefit the children, families, and programs we serve.