Toni Linder's book Transdisciplinary

Toni Linder's book Transdisciplinary play-based assessment: A functional approach to working with young children is an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of this form of assessing the developmental level of children. The author believes that this form of assessment has a number of important advantages over more traditional forms of determining a child's developmental level, primary among these being that the process is both more humane for the child and also (because it uses more naturalistic settings) that it may also be a more accurate form of determining a child's strengths and weaknesses than more traditional practices.

Linder's book is thus in many ways an argument for the use of transdisciplinary play-based assessment. However, she does not rely on emotional or unsubstantiated arguments to forward her agenda but rather seeks to convince the reader of the validity of this form of developmental assessment by describing in substantial detail precisely how such assessments are carried out, what precisely is being measured in such assessments and how cost effective they are. She also describes the drawbacks of play-based assessment so that the reader has a fair and accurate view of the appropriateness and strength of this form of assessment instrument for his or her own goals. (She includes the potentially damning fact that because the form of assessment is so new, there is scant data on either its reliability or validity.) This review examines the most important an

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assessor wishes to observe. The third phase of the assessment involves assessment of child-to-child interactions and so involves introducing a child of the same age into the assessment area. This is followed by an observation of the child's interaction with the parents (including the child's responses to the parents' departure and return) and then a snack. After this entire cycle has been completed, the results (usually recorded on videotape) are analyzed and the child's strengths and weaknesses determined. A plan for invention is then developed and a plan for the continuing evaluation and help for the child is put into place (Linder, 1990, pp. 4-5). One of the most important strengths of transdisciplinary play-based assessment is simply the fact that it allows children who were thought untestable because of previous experiences to be tested in a meaningful and accurate way, according to Linder. Certain developmental problems, including perhaps most especially autism, can make assessment extremely difficult because these conditions place barriers between children and clinicians that may be so difficult to cross in a traditional setting that it is impossible to determine a child's true developmental stage. Another of the mos

Category: Psychology - T