Pandemic Child Assessment with LAP: B–K? Here’s How

By Laura Bailet, Chief Academic Officer

Child assessment isn’t stopping, even though the COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread early childhood program disruptions and closures, as well as replacement of in-person services with distance solutions. On the contrary, programs are expected to continue meeting child-assessment requirements, often within the usual timelines.

At Kaplan Early Learning Company, we applaud and support your efforts to complete child assessments under the current challenging circumstances. Formative assessment with young children is as important now as it ever has been, if we use it to understand each child’s developmental status and needs, build learning experiences and appropriate supports, and foster strong family partnerships. With abrupt program disruptions, major stresses on families, and interruptions of young children’s learning over the last several months, we might expect more varied developmental stages and skills as children re-enter programs or enter for the first time. It is vital that programs use data to document each child’s current developmental profile, identify areas of significant concern that require additional services, and plan appropriate supports and learning experiences. We believe the Learning Accomplishment Profile: Birth to Kindergarten* (LAP: B–K) provides an excellent tool to gather this important data. So, we have created guidance for its use during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Step 1: Determine How You Will Complete LAP: B–K Assessments

The LAP: B–K was designed for in-person administration. We therefore strongly recommend that all LAP: B–K users complete child assessments in person whenever possible. The reliability and validity of assessments developed for in-person administration become less certain when assessment conditions differ significantly from those used to develop the assessment.

However, under highly unusual circumstances and situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, we recognize that child assessments sometimes must be completed even when in-person assessments are simply not possible. The LAP: B–K is built with flexibility in how information is gathered and used to score assessment items. For example, the tool has always allowed parent/caregiver input to score items when necessary. Reaching out to families to build rapport and ultimately enlist their help with completing the LAP: B–K will forge a strong collaboration, which is especially important in the current circumstances. During uncertain times, more communication helps to allay fears and foster a sense of connectedness. Further, for children who won’t be attending a program in person, parents and other caregivers need to provide high-quality interactions in the home that promote child development. They will need your guidance and support in this effort.

For these reasons, Kaplan Early Learning Company has created a set of guidance and support materials to help early childhood programs complete the LAP: B–K under conditions such as COVID-19, including distance assessments. General guidance on adapting the LAP: B–K for distance assessment includes the following:

·         Keep the assessment focused on the immediate needs of the child.

·         Use the data collected for short-term instructional planning, and reassess frequently.

·         Do not use data solely from distance assessments to make high-stakes decisions, such as determining whether a disability exists or whether a child can receive specific services.

·         Protect privacy and confidentiality of assessment data by using secure electronic platforms approved by your program. If you are recording assessment sessions to complete or check scoring, destroy the recordings once scoring is finished.

·         Share privacy and confidentiality safeguards with parents, and give them an opportunity to ask questions and give consent for recording.

·         Make the fewest assessment-item modifications necessary, keeping the intent of the item foremost in considering how to modify it effectively.

·         Engage parents or other close caregivers for help in completing assessment items.

Step 2: Prepare for and Complete All Assessments

·         Determine all aspects of how you will complete assessments, including whether you will do in-person or distance assessments. For in-person assessments, you may need to develop new schedules and cleaning protocols for the assessment location and materials used, to minimize health risks for the assessor, child, and possibly family members.

·         If you will conduct distance assessments, identify the technology to be used, whether you will record sessions to confirm scoring, and how you will help parents gather essential materials for the LAP: B–K items you need to administer.  

·         We have created lists of common supplies used in the LAP: B–K that are likely to be found in  most homes, for birth to 36 months and three- through five-years. This list can be found in the LAP: B–K application, in the Support and Resources section. It should be shared with families several days before a scheduled distance assessment, so that any substitutes can be identified.

·         For unique toys and materials used in the LAP: B–K, we have created a small set of essential items for purchase. These items can be distributed to a family in advance of their child’s scheduled distance assessment and then collected for cleaning and subsequent distribution to another family. Contact us at 888-808-2366/lapsupport@kaplanco.com for more information.

·         Become very familiar with the technology you will use, and make sure parents understand how to use the technology in advance of a distance assessment. For example, make sure they know how to connect to the communication platform, such as Zoom, and turn on and off the video and microphone functions.

·         Identify the best placement of the screen and camera for the family. You will need to see the child and, depending on her age, the space where she will work with assessment materials, such as blocks or toys, to evaluate whether an item is passed.

·         For both in-person and distance assessments, review all LAP: B–K assessment items likely to be administered for a particular child, and practice how to complete each item smoothly. Think through items you will complete by parent report, and plan how you will ask general questions to elicit scorable responses for specific items. See more detailed guidance on administering a distance assessment in the LAP: B–K application, in the Support and Resources section.

·         Administer all required items in one or more scheduled sessions, and complete scoring.

·         You can skip occasional items and still reach an approximate developmental age. However, try not to skip too many items, as results will be less reliable and informative.

Step 3: Interpret Results and Develop Action Plans

·         Generate an individual child report showing developmental ages for each domain administered, and generate the family report showing, by domain, the highest items mastered and next skills to look for. Choose other report options available in the LAP: B–K application per your preferences.

·         Identify any areas of significant concern for the child, and consider how to further investigate in accordance with your program’s policies and procedures.

·         Remember that any early childhood assessment is a snapshot in time, providing important but incomplete information about a child’s development right now, with limited ability to predict future development.

·         Recognize that COVID-19 has created conditions and stressors that may affect a child’s development and assessment results. For example, opportunities for social interaction and growth may be particularly limited if children don’t have frequent peer interactions. LAP: B–K results may thus reflect temporary developmental lags that are situationally induced but require thoughtfulness and creativity to help the child regain appropriate developmental growth.

·         Create action plans for each child based on his developmental profile, using the activities included in the LAP: B–K digital resources.

·         Create classroom or program reports to review the collective developmental-skill levels of children, and determine whether there are patterns of needs for which the program should allocate more specific resources.

Step 4: Share Child Assessment Results with Parents or Other Caregivers

Sharing child-assessment results with families in a way that enlists their active engagement is one of the most important reasons for doing assessments at all. Spend time becoming comfortable with how to interpret and describe results in a way that is family friendly, positive, and nonjudgmental. Emphasize that development and assessment are both dynamic, not fixed, processes and that you and the family will work together to help the child make ongoing developmental gains. Whether a child is attending a program or receiving distance supports, the partnership between the early childhood provider and family is critical. Consider these tips as you prepare to share child-assessment results:

·         Plan what you will say and how you will say it, staying within approximately 20 minutes.

·         Have a written document to guide you.

·         Lead with the child’s strengths.

·         Be kind, honest, professional, and family friendly.

·         Avoid professional jargon.

·         Ask the parent if what you describe fits with what she sees at home.

·         Ask what skills the parent would like the child to learn.

·         Offer activity suggestions from the LAP: B–K tool that the parent can try at home.

·         Consider purchasing essential, developmentally appropriate toys and other materials to give to families when needed, if your program will not provide in-person services for an extended period of time.

Step 5: Ongoing Progress Monitoring and Reassessment

Child assessment should take place several times each year, to make sure the child is progressing well and that you are adjusting learning experiences based on current developmental needs. Frequent, intentional observation and documentation of children’s developmental progress, used to update and adjust instructional goals and activities, is a hallmark of high-quality programs. The LAP: B–K has built-in progress-monitoring capability, which can be used whether a child is attending a classroom or receiving some or all services remotely. If you are providing distance support, you can observe the child’s play, language, motor skills, and social interaction via technology. Frequently ask for updates from the parent or caregiver about the child’s progress, and complete additional checkpoint assessments, or use some combination of these approaches.

*All guidance provided in this document applies to the E-LAP and LAP-3 as well.

Created in September 2020 to support early childhood professionals using the LAP: B–K during the COVID-19 pandemic. The information found here is subject to change over time. For any questions relating to this document, please contact us at 888-808-2366/lapsupport@kaplanco.com.