Gesell Development Schedules, Preschool Test, and School Readiness Test

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Evaluates the physical, emotional, and behavioral development of infants and young children.

The Development Schedules are a set of four timetables devised by Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) at Yale University to evaluate the physical, emotional, and behavioral development of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. They describe typical behavior at specified ages in the following areas: ability to adapt; motor functioning; use of language; and social interaction. The Development Schedules are useful to pediatricians, childpsychologists, and other professionals who work with children. They also serve as the basis for evaluating a child's performance on the Gesell tests. The Preschool Test, which is administered individually to children between the ages of 2½ and 6, consists of a variety of tasks and activities. Oral sections measure language skills, attention span, and accuracy of personal knowledge. Besides talking about themselves and their families, children are asked to name animals and discuss their favorite activities. A paper-and-pencil section assesses dominance, neuromuscular development, fine motor skills, and task-appropriate behavior. Children are asked to write their names, copy geometric figures, write numbers, and complete a drawing. A building-block section, which involves building increasingly complex structures with a set of cubes, measures fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and attention span. Other tasks included in the Preschool Test are repeating numbers, recognizing shapes, and discriminating among prepositions.

Psychologist Arnold Gesell

The Gesell School Readiness Test, used for screening older children (ages 4½ to 9) for placement in kindergarten through third grade, consists of the Preschool Test plus additional tasks including visual exercises, matching and drawing tests, and a labeling and naming exercise to assess right and left orientation. A child's performanceon the Gesell tests is evaluated based on the Development Schedules, and he or she is assigned an overall "development age" (DA). Although the Gesell test and schedules are widely used, critics claim that children with undiagnosed visual or other perceptual problems can be assigned disproportionately low DAs and be penalized in terms of school placement.

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