I believe it is most important to monitor a child’s progress based on their own past performance. There are appropriate times to assess and monitor a child in comparison to typical development expectations, but once a delay or special needs has been identified and goals written for that specific child, assessing and progress monitoring should then be done based on the child’s previous performance.

When discussing assessments and progress with parents, I think it’s important to be able to discuss both how the student is doing in comparison to typical development as well as be able to discuss the progress the student has made in comparison with their own specific starting line. If it’s important to parents to discuss how their child is doing in comparison to typical development, I would be honest and open and discuss that with them. I would always follow up with showing parents how much progress their child has made within the context of their own personal development.

This discussion question has reminded me of my own journey, and I would like to share a personal story that reflects the reasoning why I answered this discussion question in this way. My 12-year-old son has autism. At 5 years old, he was non-verbal, not potty trained, and extremely developmentally delayed. When he was in kindergarten, if his educators had told me only how he was in relation to other typically developing students, it would have seemed as if there wasn’t much hope for his education. That wasn’t the case though, throughout the years, his educators have discussed with me his progress compared with his past performance and each year we were always so amazed by how far he had come. He’s 12 now, going into middle school, verbal, potty trained and has come so far academically. I have always appreciated that his teachers have always pushed him to the best of his abilities to help him grown and move forward. comment as you see fit. min 40 words