ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some alternative approaches to cognitive assessment, based broadly on developmental theories, and raises some of the issues involved in accurately describing a child's cognitive functioning. The first issue, stages of development, has been much debated in developmental psychology. It is relevant to a consideration of assessment since the assumption of qualitatively different but interrelated stages of cognitive development might call for qualitative rather than quantitative distinctions at different levels. The second issue, the competence-performance distinction, emphasized by Chomsky (1968) and made again in intelligence testing as aptitude-performance or ability-achievement, is important in any consideration of what to observe in the limited sample of the child's cognitive repertoire. The third issue to be examined is the nature of cognitive development and assumptions made by developmental and psychometric theories. Finally, the chapter looks at some suggestions for assessing cognitive development based on a broadly developmental approach.
