We are striving to discover not how the child came to be “what he is,” but how he can become “what he not yet is.”- Alexei Leontiev
Post #2 in category. We suggest reading posts in numerical order.
Parallel Assessment, Discovering the Child and Ourselves
Some people look at a child and see the worst in them. We look at a child and see the best in them. Some people look at a child and see what they can’t do. We look at a child and focus on what they can do and what they can learn to do.
Parallel Assessment does not begin with tests or checklists, but with the child in play, in the small daily acts that reveal who they are and how they relate. It is a process of engagement, a way of coming to know the child through shared, mediated activities. Through living encounters, we begin to see what the child and their adult mediators need so they can strengthen their mutual connection and their learning.
Parallel Assessment transforms what might otherwise be seen as problems into possibilities, limitations into directions. It enables us to plan practically, not abstractly, in ways that build upon the child’s interests and rhythms and the personal relationship between the child and their mediator.
Parallel Assessment involves personal interactions with the child in daily mediated activities, helping us determine what the child and their adult mediators need to improve in their collaborative interpersonal connection and their two-way communication, and to construct better ways to help the child advance.
We pay special attention to what this child is interested in, to what they like and enjoy, to what captures their attention, to what they like to explore, and to know how they are overcoming obstacles and solving problems.
Parallel Assessment informs Parallel Development
We believe in the potential of every child to progress, to learn, to form positive relationships, and to advance.
We believe that every child can change and live fuller, richer, freer, happier lives. We are not naive idealists. We do not fabricate facts or cover up difficulties. Our eyes are open, we are practical and realistic and genuinely see more possibilities. Parallel Assessment helps us to make practical and helpful plans where others only see problems.
We see potential because many years of experience have shown us that important changes in the child’s development can be accomplished with belief in the child and in ourselves, better understanding, commitment, patience, perseverance, and enjoyable play and learning activities, and meaningful interactions with mediators. Our attitudes and assumptions, our personal approach to life and to learning, provide energy, momentum, and direction toward obtainable possibilities.
Parallel Assessment helps us to evaluate and to plan increasingly successful approaches for this child’s Parallel Development. We pay special attention to what is successful, to what builds essential prerequisites for more effective communication and problem-solving. We keep current regarding the child’s interests, efforts and successes because it is far more efficient and effective to build upon stable foundations than on unstable, vacillating symptoms.
From Symptoms to Strategies
Every human being is a living system, complex, dynamic, and ever-changing. Children, especially those with developmental challenges, don’t grow in isolation, but they thrive within nurturing mediated relationships. To help the child learn how to succeed, we need a better and deeper understanding of the child and of our relationship with the child.
Parallel Assessment helps to construct more accurate, more practical and more up-to-date understandings of the learning and the integrated development of the whole child. It continually evaluates our interactions and relationship with the child, helping us and the entire development team to plan and to organize the child’s continuing development.
Ongoing Parallel Assessments help us find better ways to relate to the child and to communicate, to parent, to educate and to treat the child; not to further label the child based on “symptoms;” not to place additional false ceilings or to justify increasingly restricted placements.
Parallel Assessment helps us set directions, determine goals, identify priorities, establish essential prerequisites, formulate specific strategies for Parallel Development, and evaluate the progress made by the child and by their adult mediators.
Parallel Assessment helps construct a more accurate, more intimate portrait of the larger growth systems: child and mediator, learning and context, process and change. It helps us perceive not only the child’s learning, but our own. It asks us to continually reflect upon the quality of our interactions, the ways we approach, respond, invite, and sustain connection and learning.
Knowing and understanding ourselves allows us to more clearly and more objectively address the child’s growth and development toward a more participatory and more fulfilling life. The stance of the adult, our attitudes, our openness, and our curiosity are important instruments of change. The adult’s growth fuels the child’s growth. Our approach, our willingness to reflect and to adapt, gives direction and momentum to the child’s enhanced potential and to our own.
Parallel Assessment reveals not only what is difficult, but what is working, pointing out the often slow and small successes that form the scaffolding for future learning. We don’t build on symptoms, which shift and deceive, on meaningless memorization, or on automatic obedience to trivial commands, but on stable foundations of prerequisite skills, and on deeper cognitive and personal understanding and relationships.
During every activity and interaction, Parallel Assessment seeks to identify these dynamics: (partial list)
- What interests the child?
- What captures the child’s attention?
- What holds the child’s attention?
- What does the child already like to do?
- What does the child already know how to do independently?
- What does the child know how to do with encouragement and mediation?
- What are the most helpful forms and boundaries of encouragement and mediation?
- What are the most helpful activities and mediation in specific contexts?
- What kinds of play and learning encourage the child to collaborate with the adult?
- What encourages and enables the child to attend to the activity, to the relevant stimulus, to us?
- What encourages the child to imitate?
- What encourages the child to communicate?
- What encourages the child to try when the material is novel or complex?
- What encourages the child to persevere?
- What changes are you seeing?
- What changes are you not seeing?
- What changes in themselves do mediators need to make to deepen communication and trust?
- What changes do you and the child’s other adult mediators need to make to improve your interpersonal communication and relationship, and will help the child want to be with you?
- What must we alter in ourselves to help the child learn how to learn and want to learn?
- When is the child deeply understanding and able to generalize the new skills and understandings?
- When does the child show genuine interest?
- When does the child smile and laugh?
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