Azim Premji University launches open access ELA tool for children

Azim Premji University on Tuesday launched 'Early Learner Assessment' (ELA) – an open access handbook for developmental assessment of children between three and five years.

Developed by early childhood educationexperts, the handbook will help professionals engaged in research of young children and parents to gather information about a child's development across a broad spectrum, including physical-motor, cognitive, language and communication, socio-emotional, creative thinking, and aesthetic expression, it said in a statement.

The ELA tool, which is evidence-based, comprehensive, culturally sensitive and set in the Indian context, has been developed based on extensive data analysis and field tested widely. The tool has the capacity to cover all major domains of a child's development.

"It will help assess a child within an hour spread across two days irrespective of whether she is attending an early childhood programme such as 'anganwadi', 'balwadi', nursery school, kindergarten or any other centre that provides preschool education", the University said.

"Assessing a child's developmental and learning outcomes will allow us to understand her current level of competencies and the quality of the preschool programme. This will help in designing and modifying the preschool environment to help children achieve their developmental potential," said Kinnari Pandya, Associate Professor, Azim Premji University.