testing 3 yr olds mental age!!!! WHAT?

[cherylanne]

My 3 yr old daughter went for a development check today with health visitor.

She had to do a few tasks and was TESTED and SCORED!! on her ability to do them. All the points are added together and you are told your childs mental age!!
I think this is awful, all children develop at different speeds and to score them is ridiculous. They even have a chart with the "normal" results on and check if your child fits into that.

I mean she's 3 years old and if i had any worrys about her development i would have voiced them sooner, The health visitor even laughed about the fact some mothers get upset when their child scores low

Am i being silly in thinking it is wrong to test our children so young? i mean they all develop differently and at different times so i don't see the point.

 

[Wobbles]

I think I'd refuse that test personally - never heard of it

 

[cherylanne]

They called me up and asked us to come along for a development check at clinic, i thought it was a weigh in and height ect, I don't take Grace to clinic anymore because she is 3, so thought it was an annual thing.

I'd have refused to go if i knew what it was, if we are asked to go for anything n the future i will be questioning what it is.

Has anyone else been for one of these with thir LO?

 

[coccyx]

Thanks for the warning! As our reception .school teacher says 'learning is a marathon not a sprint'.Parents ,well some, will become obsessed with the result.

 

[xCherylx]

That is such a pointless thing, fair enough if they just asked you what can she/he do now as I know I have a development thing in his little medical book. But to be scored is ridiculous! I think this could be a negative thing also on the child, as if the parent is told they are behind they will rush and push them into doing things too quick which could harm the toddler's development more.

 

[sabby52]

My son had this, because he had a speech problem they wanted to test him.
My HV was very nasty saying now if the score is low dont worry about it he seem to be a bit slow!!!!
OMG i was so angry, but I had the last laugh my son had the abilities of a 4 1/2 year old at 3!!!
I dont agree with the test the only reason Dan got it was because of his speech, Dec will not be having it if I am offered he will do what he wants when he wants to do it!!!!!

 

[Munchkin]

My 3 yr old daughter went for a development check today with health visitor.

She had to do a few tasks and was TESTED and SCORED!! on her ability to do them. All the points are added together and you are told your childs mental age!!
I think this is awful, all children develop at different speeds and to score them is ridiculous. They even have a chart with the "normal" results on and check if your child fits into that.

I mean she's 3 years old and if i had any worrys about her development i would have voiced them sooner, The health visitor even laughed about the fact some mothers get upset when their child scores low

Am i being silly in thinking it is wrong to test our children so young? i mean they all develop differently and at different times so i don't see the point.

Well, I think it's probably not such a bad thing. Most of us on BnB seem to be quite clued up as to where our kids should be developmentally and would raise concerns ourselves if we felt they were falling behind. Not sure what sort of benchmarks they use to score the children, but I would hope that these are rough guidelines because all kids develop differently, as you so rightly said.

Do the 'normal' results indicate a good range?

Unfortunately not everyone is as clued up, and not everyone gives their kids the developmental tools, stimulation as required. I mean, I'm sure there are parents who feed their kids take aways, plonk them in front of the TV and don't pay too much attention to developing their skills. And it would probably benefit kids who aren't fortunate to have parents like us.

I think your HV is probably a little immature or doesn't take her job seriously enough - and I'd be inclined to complain about that if I were you to be honest.