Early basic concept acquisition in young children is strongly influenced by hands-on activities and life experiences during interactions with family members. More advanced concepts can be developed through formal academic exposure (e.g., “happy” vs. “delighted” or “sad” vs. “disappointed”). Concept development underpins all communications and academic subject matter. If children understand the nexus of foundational and topical concepts, they can understand and meaningfully discuss with depth and breadth any related subject. When children do not understand these essential concepts, they struggle to grasp the conjoint relationships between otherwise tangentially related facts. Comprehension of basic concepts is critical for school success, highly relevant to educational terminology, and central to early childhood standards in all 50 states.

In this webinar, data will be presented to highlight the value of dedicated basic concept assessment to determine if a child understands the basic concepts needed to be successful in formal education, identify the basic concepts a child has mastered and the concepts the child has not learned, and to contribute information to psychoeducational assessment. Finally, reliability and validity data for the Bracken Basic Concepts Scale (4th ed.): Receptive™ (BBCS-4: R^TM) and the Bracken School Readiness Assessment™ (4th ed.; BSRA^TM-4) will be presented that show excellent internal inconsistency coefficients for both the normative sample and groups of children with a developmental delay or language impairment and children who are gifted and talented.

Learner Outcomes

After completing this webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Explain how the comprehension of basic concepts is related to children's understanding of daily classroom conversations, teacher directions, and school curricula
   
2. Explain how concept development is a powerful predictor of overall language development, cognitive functioning, and school readiness
3. Explain how testing concept attainment can be an integrated part of your assessment battery