Reviews

REVIEW BY AN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST in Portage Post Issue 57 November 2003

THE PLAY OBSERVATION KIT (POKIT)
IRENE WESTERMAN
SENIOR EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST (EARLY YEARS) DERBYSHIRE EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY SERVICE

POKIT has been developed by Dr. Kay Mogford-Bevan based on many years working with young children and carrying out research into the “normal” development of play in very young children. The Kit is available from:

EGGHEAD PUBLICATIONS
HILLHEAD
BODMIN HILL
LOSTWITHIEL
CORNWALL PL22 0HU
EggheadPublications.co.uk

POKIT consists of a manual and CD-ROM that allows you to print out all the forms and paperwork you need to carry out the assessment. In addition, it is necessary to buy a set of toys that are used in the assessment. The manual gives detailed guidance on which toys are needed.

The CD-ROM is an invaluable source of information on issues linked to the development of the assessment materials. POKIT allows you to carry out an assessment of a young child in the child’s natural surroundings and in a play based situation that is familiar to the child. The assessment takes account of the fact that the child’s interaction with familiar adults is crucial to the assessment. POKIT provides an excellent questionnaire to allow you to collect information about the child’s experiences of, and opportunities for, play. It also allows you to gather information on the child’s preferred play activities and the child’s exposure to the materials used in the assessment.

POKIT is designed to allow you to assess a child across key areas of development. The outcomes of the assessment seem to lend themselves well to target setting. In other words, POKIT is an assessment tool that is part of a “plan - do - review” cycle. The assessment provides qualitative as well as quantitative outcomes. In particular the assessment provides information on the child’s learning abilities and styles. POKIT is designed to be used with children with a developmental age of 12 – 48 months so it is ideally suited for many of the children who would be receiving Portage services. Because it acknowledges the key role of familiar adults (usually parents or carers), I believe it also fits in well with the key Portage principle of working in partnership with parents.

POKIT uses a standard set of toys. They have been selected so that some may be familiar to the child whereas others will be novel. The toys have also been selected to encourage both symbolic and non-symbolic play. This is an important aspect of the assessment and age equivalents are given for both aspects of play. This allows a profile of strengths and weaknesses to build up for the child in different play areas. An enormous amount of work has gone into producing a checklist of “normal” play behaviours and it is possible to score the child’s performance to give a developmental summary across symbolic and non-symbolic play areas. Perhaps of more use, within a Portage context, is the opportunity POKIT provides to record qualitative aspects of play such as the child’s willingness to explore, the child’s response to prompting, etc. This fits well into the Portage model and provides additional opportunities to work
with parents to give them greater insight into their child’s behaviour and to set realistic and relevant targets for play.

There is an emphasis on the importance of social interaction and communication within the assessment. POKIT provides a tool for the systematic observation, recording and analysis of this vital aspect of development. This is particularly valuable because it is obtained in a natural setting for the child with adults who play a key role in the child’s life.

POKIT is a comprehensive assessment tool allowing for assessment across a wide range of developmental areas as indicated in the summary above. At the time of writing this, I do not feel sufficiently experienced in the use of POKIT to comment on each of these aspects.

My experience of using this assessment tool is, as yet, very limited but I feel it is of enormous potential and I would recommend it as a valuable aid to assessment and planning.