There are many signs of developmental delays that can exist in children and often vary depending on specific characteristics (Gill & Pietrangelo, 2020). Therefore, it is important to screen children for early identification of developmental delays. In light of this, The Early Childhood Commission in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Youth and Culture Health Art Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund partnered to make the 2022 administration of the Jamaica School Readiness Assessment (JSRA), more popularly known as the Age 4 Assessment a success.
What is the JSRA?
The JSRA was designed to screen 4-year-old children for child developmental delays and readiness for primary school, in order determine whether additional developmental evaluation is necessary and to assist in curriculum-planning to support children’s readiness for primary school. The components of the JSRA includes the child’s Demographic Profile, Child Health & Development, Child Behaviour Rating Scale, Approaches to Learning/Social-Emotional, Early Literacy Skills and Early Numeracy Skills.
Early Childhood Practitioner (ECPs) are responsible for completing the JSRA booklets for all four-year-old children during the administration in term 3 of each academic year.
When was JSRA Administered?
The JSRA booklets were distributed to all ECIs across the Jamaica who had age 4 children. The assessment was conducted by the class teacher throughout the period of June 20 – July 1, 2022, with the aid of the ECC field officers. The distribution and completion process were carefully supervised by the field officers.
What’s Next?
The ECC has sought the expertise of DPK, an Information Technology (IT) based company that provides data conversion and data processing services to aid with developing a workable solution for easy conversion of the data to expedite the reporting process. The data from the JSRA booklets is currently being processed by data entry clerks, who have been tasked with transcribing the data from the JSRA booklets on to stock forms.
The results from the administration of the 2022 JSRA will become available to ECIs by September 2022. The data from the report will be used by teachers to determine one of two actions:
- Refer to the ECC field officer for administration of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire Jamaica (ASQ-J).
- To be monitored in Class 3
Gill & Pietrangelo. (2020). What you need to know about developmental delays. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/developmental-delay
EARLY CHILDHOOD COMMISSION 