Explain the factors that need to be taken into account when assessing development: When assign children and young people sensitivity and accuracy needs to be taken into account. The following factors have to be considered: • Confidentiality It is usual and best practice to receive permission/consent from the parents/carers allowing you to carryout an observation on their child. Most parents consent to this but they usually do not want other parents or people that have no involvement with their child reading any reports. It is important not to leave any notes or records where they might be seen by others. Observations should be stored in the child’s observation book/learning journey and when discussing a child it is important to only discuss …show more content…
Statements made about a child that are inaccurate can lead to harming the child’s development, especially if it can lead to adults underestimating a child’s potential. This is why it is important to consider the reliability of the information that we gather and also the limitations of any observation methods that are used. • Avoiding bias It is really important at all stages of observing and assessing a child to be completely objective. Two people can record the same child doing the same activity and they can produce two very different observations, for example one person might decide that a smile is important and so they will record it but another person might decide otherwise. It can be really difficult for practitioners who have a strong relationship with a child to be objective but it is really important that the child is assessed properly at it does not help the child at all if the observation is not a true reflection of the child ability. • Open and closed recording methods Some of our recording methods can make it really easy for observers to show a bias. These are usually the more open methods as they allow the assessor to select which information to focus on, for example the sticky note method