Individualizing care for infants and toddlers means tailoring interactions, learning experiences, routines, daily schedules, transitions, and environments to each child’s developmental stage, interests, needs, language, and culture. This individualization happens as a part of curriculum implementation. When providing such responsive care, education staff gather and use ongoing assessment data to understand how children are developing and learning across the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) domains and sub-domains and to inform teaching practices (45 CFR § 1302.33(b)). For home visitors, ongoing assessment information informs the ways they work with families to support children’s development and learning, engage in responsive interactions, and use the home as the learning environment.
To learn more about the ongoing child assessment process and activities (prepare, collect, aggregate and analyze, use, and share), review:
- Ongoing Child Assessment: A Program Leader’s Guide
- Beginning Teacher Series: Module 8 – Conducting Ongoing Assessment (Individualized Professional Development [iPD] Portfolio)
- Teacher Time: Using Ongoing Child Assessment to Support Effective Infant/Toddler Teaching Practices
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Resource Type: Article
National Centers: Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning
Last Updated: July 25, 2023