Toddler/Two-Year-Old Program

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The toddler and two-year-olds at Littlest Lambs and Little Lambs Early Learning Centers currently utilize two assessment tools to evaluate the education and learning in our classrooms, they are the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) and the Ounce Scale (Ounces). Both ages groups utilize their own curricula, designed by their teachers, that is tailored to the individual classrooms interests and that also meets our 5-Star standards and VELS.

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ASQ:

Ages & Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ®-3) is a developmental screening tool designed for use by early educators and health care professionals. It relies on parents as experts, is easy-to-use, family-friendly and creates the snapshot needed to catch delays and celebrate milestones. 

Here are the five important areas of development that each questionnaire looks at:

1. Communication: Your child’s language skills, both what your child understands and what he or she can say.

2. Gross Motor: How your child uses their arms and legs and other large muscles for sitting, crawling, walking, running, and other activities.

3. Fine Motor: Your child’s hand and finger movement and coordination.

4. Problem Solving: How your child plays with toys and solves problems.

5. Personal-Social: Your child’s self-help skills and interactions with others.

How to complete the questionnaire:

1. Select the questionnaire & Ask the parent to complete the questionnaire. 

2. The parent answers the questions. ASQ’s items are easy for parents to try with their child and respond to. Questions such as “Does your baby pick up a crumb or Cheerio with the tips of his thumb and a finger?” The parent answers yes, sometimes, or not yet then moves on to the next item. This process takes about 10–15 minutes.

3. Score the questionnaire. Then, compare the child’s scores to the cutoff points listed on the scoring sheet.

4. Discuss results with parents and determine next steps. Communicate the screening results to the child’s parents, and suggest resources for follow-up, monitoring, or further assessment if needed.

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Ounce:

The Ounce Scale comprises three core components:

1. The Observation Record provides a focus for observing and documenting children’s everyday behaviors and provides data for making evaluations.

2. The Family Album offers a structure for parents to learn about and record their child’s development.

3. The Developmental Profile enables caregivers and other staff to evaluate each child’s development and progress over time, comparing their observations.

- Presents a highly reliable, criterion-referenced measure based on specific developmental standards.

- Helps meet Early Head Start and federal assessment requirements.

- Allows you to gather information from multiple perspectives, giving a more well-rounded picture of the child’s development.

- Takes a natural, whole-child approach to observation.

- Helps educate parents so that they can become more involved in decisions about their children.

- Supports early intervention for at-risk kids.

Designed for use with infants and toddlers, The Ounce Scale is organized around six major developmental areas:

1. Personal connections: How children show they trust you.

2. Feelings about self: How children express who they are.

3. Relationships with other children: What children do around other children.

4. Understanding and communicating: How children understand and communicate.

5. Exploration and problem solving: How children explore and figure things out.

6. Movement and coordination: How children move their bodies and use their hands to do things.

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