Research
Cognitive ToyBox (CTB)’s mission is to help school administrators, teachers, parents and other family members help every child to start and succeed in school and life. The organization does this by making ongoing assessment easy and actionable for early childhood educators. Well-planned and effective assessments inform teaching and program improvement, contributing to better outcomes for children. Currently, the primary method of obtaining information about student progress in early childhood education programs is through teacher-conducted observation-based assessment and evaluation against developmental guides. However, an observation-only assessment approach poses limitations in reliability, validity, and usability. CTB provides teachers with a hybrid game-based and observation-based assessment system.This approach is designed to support teachers in spending less time on assessment, while gathering reliable and valid data on an ongoing basis. CTB is designed to help programs shift from assessment for compliance to assessment for continuous program improvement. By reducing the feedback loop between assessment and instruction, teachers can provide more individualized support for children, enabling them to thrive. Cognitive ToyBox was founded in 2015 out of a National Science Foundation I-Corps for Learning grant at NYU. Co-founders Tammy Kwan and Dr. Brenden Lake are committed to developing evidence-based technology solutions to support early childhood educators, parents and children.
Assessment Platform
The assessment platform enables teachers to conduct standardized and structured observation-based and direct assessments for children ages birth to five. The platform is aligned to the goals described in the Head Start Early Learning Child Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five and supports assessment of the five central developmental domains: Approaches to Learning, Social and Emotional Development, Language and Literacy, Cognition, and Perceptual, Motor and Physical Development.
Please see below for research on Cognitive ToyBox, including the reliability and validity of the tool and its usability for instructional adjustment and individualization. More research is forthcoming in this area, and this page will be updated on an ongoing basis.
Assessment Platform
The assessment platform enables teachers to conduct standardized and structured observation-based and direct assessments for children ages birth to five. The platform is aligned to the goals described in the Head Start Early Learning Child Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five and supports assessment of the five central developmental domains: Approaches to Learning, Social and Emotional Development, Language and Literacy, Cognition, and Perceptual, Motor and Physical Development.
Please see below for research on Cognitive ToyBox, including the reliability and validity of the tool and its usability for instructional adjustment and individualization. More research is forthcoming in this area, and this page will be updated on an ongoing basis.
- Kwan, T. (2021). Supporting family child care providers and networks with Cognitive ToyBox. New York, NY: Author.
- Cognitive ToyBox (2021). Use Case: Technology-Based Tools Enable Greater Collaboration Between Head Start and Public Schools. New York, NY: Author.
- Navta, N. (2020). Use Case: Using Cognitive ToyBox at Home during Covid-19 School Closures. New York, NY: Author.
- Tripathy, R., Burke, R., & Kwan, T. (2020). Case Study: Implementing Cognitive ToyBox alongside a Traditional Observation-Only Approach to Assessment in the Early Childhood Classroom. San Francisco, CA: WestEd.
- Lewis, M., Cristiano, V., Lake, B. M., Kwan, T., & Frank, M. C. (2020). The role of developmental change and linguistic experience in the mutual exclusivity effect. Cognition.
- Flynn, K. & Patel, R. (2019). Cognitive ToyBox Subject Matter Expert Review. San Francisco, CA: WestEd.
- Hull, S. & Kwan, T. (2019, October 4). Measuring school readiness through games: A focus on reliability, validity and outcomes. New York, NY: Author.
- White, J. (2019, May 24). Cognitive ToyBox: Achieving early literacy in Davie County. Mocksville, NC: Mebane Charitable Foundation.
- Subramanyam, A. & Kwan, T. (2019). The Promise of Game-Based Assessment in Early Childhood Education. New York, NY: Author.
- White, J. (2018, August 23). Cognitive ToyBox: Data-based assessment tool to accelerate progress in early childhood literacy. Mocksville, NC: Mebane Charitable Foundation.
- Carvalho, P.F., & Smith, L.B. (2018) Week-long practice matching 2D objects by shape improves 3D shape bias and accelerates children vocabulary growth. Poster presented at 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.