Health and Physical Development in Early Childhood Programs: Recommendations for Programs and Their Evaluation.

One concern frequently cited regarding early childhood programs is that methods for assessing some of their more important objectives are inadequate or nonexistent. This paper addresses this concern in the areas of health, safety, nutrition, dental health, and physical development during the preschool years. An organizing framework for classifying the outcomes of early childhood programs in these areas was developed during the first phase of the Head Start Measures Project. In order to determine which characteristics of children's development are important to measure, two surveys were conducted: (1) a survey of 22 child development scholars; and (2) a survey of 375 primary school teachers, and Head Start teachers, parents and staff. The organizing framework resulting from analysis of survey data includes four content dimensions (health and safety, dental health, nutrition, and motor development). Each content dimension contains from 3 to 10 clusters of variables, or constructs. These constructs are discussed in terms of recent literature, especially research on the pilot testing of assessment techniques. It is suggested that these techniques can be used by early childhood programs to conduct their own evaluations to provide comprehensive, in-depth assessments of the effectiveness of health-related program components. (CB)