Resources

Available from the Head Start Information and Publications Center:

Observation and Recording: Tools for Decision Making This technical guide enhances the skills of education staff so that they can accurately and objectively record young children's behavior and make appropriate decisions about program planning for each child.

Enhancing Children's Growth and Development This technical guide expands on the concepts developed in Nurturing Children. It is designed to enhance the skills of education staff so that they can apply their knowledge of how children grow and develop to planning, implementing, and evaluating activities and experiences on-site, at home, and during group socialization sessions.

You may order publications through Head Start Information and Publication Center by calling 703-683-5767, faxing 703-683-5769, or visiting their Web site at http://www.headstartinfo.org.

Resources Available from Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families

"Developmental Screening, Assessment, and Evaluation: Key Elements for Individualizing Curricula in Early Head Start Programs," Technical Assistance Paper No. 4 (October 2000). This paper describes the differences between screening, assessment, and evaluation, and their relationship to curricula and planning. It also includes a list of resources, definitions of common terms, and a review of some common screening and assessment tests.

New Visions for the Developmental Assessment of Infants and Young Children, Samuel J. Meisels and Emily Fenichel, editors (1996). This publication discusses the principles and guidelines of appropriate developmental assessment, how parents and professionals share responsibility for the assessment process, the importance of sociocultural background, and a number of other valuable topics.

New Visions for Parents Materials

This family information packet about developmental assessment includes a letter to parents, New Visions: A Parent's Guide to Understanding Developmental Assessment, Planning and Preparing for Your Child's Developmental Assessment, and List of Terms: Terms Frequently Used in Developmental Assessment. Most of this information may also be downloaded from the Zero to Three Web site.

You may order publications through Zero to Three by calling 1-800-899-4301, faxing 202-638-0851, or visiting their Web site at www.zerotothree.org

Selected Web sites with useful information include:

http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/books/fivepers.html - The entire text of Five Perspectives on Quality in Early Childhood Programs, by Lilian G. Katz–a book that is now out of print.

http://www.apa.org/ – The American Psychological Association. Search for "early childhood assessment."

http://www.nichcy.org/pubs/newsdig/nd23txt.htm – National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities.

http://www.naeyc.org – National Association for the Education of Young Children.

http://headstartinfo.org – Head Start Information and Publication Center.

http://zerotothree.org – Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families.

This list is not intended to be a comprehensive list of on-line resources for Head Start programs.