EYFS Best Practice: All about ... Assessment through observation

In our view, listening to young children is an integral part of understanding what they are feeling and experiencing, and what it is they need from their early years experience. It is important to remember that all children are 'experts in their own lives' (Langsted 1994(1)) and are active 'co-constructors of meaning.

These ideas about childhood, children's rights, democratic participation and voice have profoundly affected our research and development work at the Centre for Research in Early Childhood in Birmingham.

Observation is one of the most important professional skills a practitioner uses in their day-to-day practice. It is the process of systematically watching and listening to children and documenting what practitioners see and hear. Regular, focused observations of children are at the heart of effective assessment and planning for learning and development. High-quality and systematic observational-based assessment is at the heart of the AcE Programme, a new learning outcomes assessment technique for early years practitioners that we have developed along with Maureen Saunders (2010)(2).