I have written many times about various subjects and some of those subjects I am 100 percent convinced they need to be a certain way. But for the most part, I don't like stating that something should never be done. I think there are reasons for doing and for not doing things. In this article I will discuss assessing young kids and why it has merit and why it doesn't.
I know there is a trend going on now with regards to young kids. The trend has to do with allowing them to play and not have much structure in their play- just play. I am one that mostly believes this is greatly important, but I also know that times are changing. It isn't so easy to get kids to just go play. I see that with my own children. They like to play, but they want me or their friends to do it with them. I also notice that because the way kids are inundated with so many new computer and hand held games that they don't have the same forced creativity that we had to have. For gosh sakes, I could entertain myself with a rock and a stick if I had to. We didn't have many other options.
The other more serious reason that kids don't have the opportunity for free play anymore is that it isn't all that safe to let kids out of your sight. There are people out there that are watching children play and taking advantage of any opportunity to get to them. This is enough to make any parent isolate their child from free play outside and on their own.
So the reason I think free play with no structure is a bit more difficult to allow these days is because it isn't as safe as it used to be and kids are occupied by other things. I bring this up, because I think parents and coaches need to organize or at least plan time for the kids to have free play.
Two other fathers and I take our daughters and a couple of other children to the school and do some fun basketball skills and movement skills with them once a week. We play games and allow them to have fun, but we give them some instructions as well. Because of where our house is located, we have no way for our kids to go outside and walk to the park or to a friend's house. We have to take them.
I guess my point is not all organization for kids is bad. You can organize free play when you need to. Now, let's talk about assessing young kids.
I know many experts think that there is no need to assess young kids at all. I can agree and disagree on this. First of all, I agree that through assessing kids you gain valuable knowledge, but basing their entire workout off the assessment is not needed. I don't think assessment is as bad as others might have you think, but I don't think it is needed. The main reason is kids change so fast as they grow and develop; they will be different next week just because they developed. I also feel it doesn't need to be done for the purpose of rating kids. This is a big mistake. Young kids should not be measured against other kids on athletic or physical abilities. It labels them and does not have a positive effect on their development.
At the we assess all our athletes. The older more mature athletes get assessed so we can directly improve issues that are potentially injurious and to improve sport performance. In regards to our younger athletes and pre-adolescence, we assess them because they like it. They want to be included in the "Big Boy and Big Girl" program. It is fun to them. They don't take it serious and neither do we. But what it does do for my coaches and me is red flag potential issues that might need to be looked at further. For example, we will assess our athletes on various speed skills like 10-yard dash, lateral shuffle, change of direction, and basic jumping exercises (vertical or broad). We also do the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) with all our kids. Now, if we see a consistent issue with how a youngster runs and he or she complains of sore or painful feet every time they run or change direction we will keep an eye on this. There have been many times throughout my 20 years of working with kids that I have discovered feet issues that needed the attention of a foot specialist. The assessment doesn't always need to be formal. It can be simply noticing some things that occur over and over again that don't look right.
Once again, assessing for young kids can be done, but it must be done for the right reasons. Like I mentioned above, many times the youngsters like to be assessed and see how fast they can run or how flexible they are. The scores mean nothing because we know how quickly they can change due to simple development, but if they want to do it than we should afford them the opportunity to explore how they move.
Assessing for young kids is fine. I don't like the iron clad "Don't Ever Assess Kids" because as you just read, there are positive reason to do so.
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