Elements and Performance Criteria

To identify children's interests and plan future experiences, observations vary according to children's ages . Observations may include:
For babies, infants and toddlers:
All aspects of the child's development
Fine and gross motor skills
Interests, strengths and needs
Child's knowledge, skills and understanding
For 3 to 5 year olds:
All aspects of child's development
Child's interests
Child's strengths and needs
Social interactions
Child's knowledge, skills and understanding
For 6 to 12 year olds:
All aspects of child's development
Child's interests
Child's strengths and needs
Their interests and leisure requirements
Peer groupings, and social interactions
Socially isolated children
Interests, strengths and needs

Information may be gathered by:
Observations of the child
Questioning
Reports
Conversations with child's peers
Anecdotal information eg. Remembrances of other workers, parents

Specifications for recording observations may include:
Organisational requirements
Service accreditation requirements
Confidentiality policies and procedures

Contributions to observation recording can be in the form of:
Writing
Discussions
Conversations

Play may be recorded by:
Writing
Video
Photography

Contributions to planning may involve observations that:
Play environment is too challenging, leading to children becoming frustrated
Play environment is not stimulating enough, leading to children becoming bored
Play environment does not provide opportunity for child's interests/needs
Child's reactions to play environment
Child's play interests

Critical aspects of assessment:
Demonstrated ability to observe and interpret children's behaviour and contribute to program planning

Essential knowledge:
Relevant child development stage knowledge to a basic level
Organisational standards, policies and procedures

Essential skills:
Skills in observing children to an introductory level
Report writing
Interpersonal

Resource implications:

Assessment requires access to a range of opportunities defined in the Range Statement. This includes:

A childcare workplace
Access to children's services, resources and equipment
Access to the local environment

Context of assessment:
This unit could be assessed either on the job, or off the job through an appropriate workplace simulation for a range of age groups and a range of conditions over a number of assessment situations