EC Classroom Assessment Tool Review

Infant/Toddler Environmental Rating Scale

The Assessment Tool Description

Infant/Toddler Environmental Scale (ITERS-R) is an assessment tool designed to measure the quality of a group of programs toddlers and infants use. The assessment tool focuses on the full range of needs of toddlers and infants ages 1 to 3. The process involves collecting data through classroom observations and interviews done by staff and teachers (Harms et al., 2017). The scale does asses a variety of aspects, including teacher-child interactions and environmental provisions, which affect the vast developmental milestone of toddlers and infants. The assessment is a 39-item rating scale organized into seven subscales: one parent/staff-related sub-scale and six environmental subscales. Each of the items has a rank between 1 to 7. A ranking of 7 describes excellent, high-quality, personalized care, while a ranking of 1 means that the care does not meet custodial care needs. The instrument gives accurate information to the staff of areas where care needs to be improved and areas with high-quality care. Considering that it is a self-assessment tool, it is very effective because the results are practical and easy to evaluate.

Developmental areas

The ITERS is a self-assessment tool with seven significant components, which this section will discuss and are also known as subscales.

Space and furnishings are the first subscales as an environmental subscale, and it assesses the use of indoor spacing. The room arrangement and the furniture that the toddlers and infants access should be constantly checked. The provision for comfort and relaxation should be available. The second subscale is the personal care routines. This subscale assesses the nap time, safety and health practices, meals and snacks, diapering and greetings and departing. It is essential because it directly affects the child’s health and mannerisms. Thirdly, listening and talking is another assessment component. It does deal with helping the child understand more about language as they start to listen and talk. It also assesses the child’s ability to use language in their daily activities and helps them know how to use books that help them read and learn. The fourth component involves the toddler’s activities (Harms et al., 2017). These include physical play, art activities, fine motor, music and movement, blocks, drama and plays, sand and water play, nature and sciences, electronic gadgets use, and promoting diversity acceptance. These activities require the toddler or infant to engage in these activities, which help in actively; the child’s cognitive, physical and psychosocial development.

The fifth component in the ITERS is the child’s interaction within their environment. Such interaction includes peer interaction, child-staff interaction, supervision of play and learning and discipline. These aspects play a critical role in the ability of the child to interact with people around their environment, and the assessment is to know the level the children engage. Sixth is the program structure, which touches on; free play, group play activities, schedules and provisions for children with disabilities. This subscale aims to know how much the children would adhere to a given structure and program. Lastly, the parent and staff subscale deals more with the parents and staff have on children. They include; provision for parents, personal and professional needs staff, staff interaction, supervision and interaction and opportunities for growth.

The Research Foundation

The ITERS is an essential tool in assessing a child’s growth in various scopes because of its measurable scales. In the process of a child growing and developing, they interact with various external and internal factors, which do alter their growth and development patterns. ITERS aims to assess how the factors affect the various growth aspects of toddlers and infants (Harms et al., 2017). ITERS does assess how environmental factors affect the growth and development of the child. It assesses the children’s interactions, the activities they engage in and the resources they access in their environment. Assessing these scales alters these children’s cognitive, physical and socio-emotional growth. ITERS also assesses the interaction of the children and other people around their environment. Interactions are essential in creating bonds and developing a child’s emotional abilities. The ITERS ensures that it can measure the interaction levels of a child and hence be able to know their personalities.

The Process of Administering Assessment

The ITERS 3 is a scale designed to assess the quality of the environmental factors during the learning process. During the process of assessment, the learner gets to interact with both the teachers and the parents; hence, the process of administering assessment has certain conditions. It involves close interaction between the learner and the teachers. The teachers get to deal with their learners close because they interact with them regularly. The process of administering assessment happens on a learner-by-learner basis. The personal interaction during the assessment ensures that the assessment is correct and tailored to each learner. Lastly, the assessment process happens over a given period because the teacher gets to know the different aspects of the child.

Training Process

The training procedure has to achieve the following objectives:

Ensuring that the teacher is familiar with the ITERS 3 tool. Being familiar with the tool makes it easier for the teacher to approach the assessment practically. The teacher can assess how the learner uses their spaces, their awareness of their environment and such activities. The training process involves the teacher knowing the components of a quality early learning environment such that they assess and give accurate information. Lastly, being able to create awareness of the importance of the ITERS tool in the further development of the learner such that they can excel in their studies.

Data Collection Procedure

These data collection procedures were both traditional methods and other methods that matched the various assessment. Observation over a given period is an appropriate procedure for collecting data. Since children are quite interactive, asking these children, questions is another procedure for collecting data.

Reporting Procedure

Reporting procedure of the entire ITERS tool assessment involves processes such as; describing what is observable, such as skills and abilities. Ensuring that the reporting describes the entire assessment time and should focus on the seven subscales. The report should be objective, evaluate all the observations and follow all the requirements of an ECD assessment.

Brochure

References

Harms, T., Cryer, D., Clifford, R. M., & Yazejian, N. (2017). Infant/toddler environment rating scale (ITERS-3). Teachers College Press. 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027.