Thursday, January 10, 2008

Interesting, yet also very boring.

I received a "developmental checklist" from Allison's teacher today. A skills assessment is part of the 2-3 yr old curriculum and both myself and the teacher will independently fill one out. It will be reviewed once we both complete it, looking for skills that may need to be worked on in either classroom, home or both. It also will serve as "developmental red flags" in case further intervention is necessary.

This list is very interesting to me, but I'm sure boring to anyone who doesn't have a child in the 24-36 month age group. I'm writing down the list they gave me in case anyone else wants to see the skills you should look for in a child in this age group. I thought it especially pertinent due to the daycare vs stay at home mom discussion we just had here. If I was a stay at home mom, I don't know how I would get information like this, so just in case, I wanted to share. Who knows, if I was a stay at home mom, maybe this would all be stuff I would seek out and research. But since it doesn't apply to me, I have never even considered the fact this information existed.

I took the list seriously, as I tested her on each and every task. Coming up with some of them took a little creative thinking, but we got through it. I hope you find it just as interesting as I did! I am not sharing for any other reason than to do just that - share. Forgive my ignorance if everyone already has this information and it's just new to me.

Movement
~ climbs well
~ walks down stairs alone, placing both feet on each step
~ walks up stairs, alternating feet with support
~ swings leg to kick ball
~ runs easily
~ pedals tricycle
~ bends over easily without falling

Hand and Finger Skills
~ makes vertical, horizontal, circular strokes w/ pencil or crayon
~ turns books pages one at a time
~ builds a tower of more than 6 blocks
~ holds a pencil in writing position
~ screws and unscrews jar lids
~ turns rotating handles

Language
~ recognizes and identifies almost all common objects and pictures
~ understands most sentences
~ understands physical relationships (on, in, under)
~ can say name, age and gender
~ uses pronouns (I, you, me, we, they)
~ strangers can understand most of their words

Cognitive
~ makes mechanical toys work
~ matches an object in hand or room to a picture in a book
~ plays make believe with dolls, animals and people
~ sorts objects by color
~ completes puzzles with 3 or 4 pieces
~ understands concept of "two"

Social/Emotional
~ separates easily from parents
~ expresses a wise range of emotions
~ objects to major changes in routine

Developmental Red Flags
~ frequent falling and difficulty with stairs
~ persistent drooling or very unclear speech
~ inability to build a tower of more than 4 blocks
~ difficulty manipulating small objects
~ inability to copy a circle by age 3
~ no involvement in pretend play
~ failure to understand simple instructions
~ little interest in other children
~ extreme difficulty separating from primary caregiver

Allie can do most of it, but does have some issues with some. (I wish I was able to say "my kid can do everything!" with a smile, but I can't!)
~ She can pedal the tricycle backwards, but can't do it forward, when there is resistance.
~ She can turn thick type pages of a book or pages of a board book, but can't turn regular paper pages one at a time. She'll turn 10 pages at one time and not notice.
~ She doesn't use the pronoun "they". Instead, she uses "them". IE: "Them played with me at the playground!"
~ I was a little unsure about what exactly a "mechanical" toy was. They have literal mechanic toys (wrench, screwdriver, etc) and she can use toys that take multiple steps, but just don't know what they mean by "mechanical".
~ Regarding separating easily from parents. She protests almost every day I take her to school, but she doesn't resist it. She'll go right to her teacher, she's just not happy about it.
~ Objecting to major changes in routine? Isn't this every kid from birth? Allie doesn't like it when she is expecting to do one thing, but we do another. How is this a developmental skill? I think I may be looking at it incorrectly.

7 comments:

Nico said...

I think it's a very interesting list! So many things I have to look forward to :-) Sounds like Allie is doing really well if she can already do all of these!

Anonymous said...

hey, im not a mom but i love to read your blogs. i am a special educator, my specialty area being children birth to age 5. i am not sure if the developmental checklist you are filling out is the ages and stages questionaire, if not this is similar and you can access the checklist online at http://asq.uoregon.edu/ and it will score it and give you an idea of how your child is developing, and if there are any red flags that warent looking into. just thought it was interesting and had to share with you.

nancy said...

jmp - thank you! This checklist was just titled "Developmental Checklist, Ages 24-36 months" and that was that. I typed out all the info on the entire thing. No other explanations were given. I'll check out the online version.

Jen said...

It's pretty cool that you have that information. I'm a little worried though, because I show some of those developmental warning signs. I drool a lot (at least in my sleep), falling or at least running into walls is an issue, and hubby says that he can't understand me when I talk and that I don't follow basic instructions from him. Uh oh...

Jenera said...

That's a good list. We had something similar from his pediatrician at 18 months kind of like a tool to tell us what to look for.

Aidan is 22 months and can do most of those except the speech ones. He is still learning to talk. But he also can't go forward on a trike or in his little car-backwards is his only direction.

If we hadn't received a list from the pedi, I probably would have looked some things up just to make sure since he's our first and we're not around many kids his age.

Meredith said...

That is a great list - just a fyi stay at home moms, you can request lists like that some your pedi's. If your pedi's don't have one you can call your local 0-3 early intervention prorgam and they have a list like that for every age (at least in CO they do). I called them up when I was worried about Tylers speech and my pedi wasnt. I did the checklist and saw that most likely he did have a delay, he was evaluated and now in speech therapy. Just thought I would share in case sahms want a way to get other age lists and stuff!

Nancy - way to go Allie for doing so many things so well. Just remember (this is the teacher in me talking) that she doesnt need to do those thing until she hits 36 months, so I am sure the pedaling and stuff will be there by then.

q said...

I am a horrible horrible SAHM. My almost 4 year old can not do some of the things on the list. I know I am a failure in some regards in their development, but I also know that they both can do things very well that are not on the list. I guess it is a give/take.

I am very impressed with what your children can do. You must be very very proud. I am a little jealous that your girls have such awesome teachers. I wish I could get my kids into a program, but in the hole in the wall town we live in there are no good learning centers unless we want to put a second mortgage on our house ;)