I have never done well at taking tests.  I always dreaded taking any type of test in school to rate my intelligence level.  There are many children who have the same problems.  Children should be tested in many different areas.  Most of these areas should not be “tested” by answering questions on paper.  Children learn in different ways and often take different approaches in showing their intelligence.  It is important to make sure children are where they should be at developmentally according to their age.  I feel there should be a separate list of what children should be able to do at their age.  An example would be an assessment that lists what a six year old can do socially, cognitively, physically and emotionally.  I think professionals should take time to speak to the individual child and perform a proper assessment on each individual skill.  The most important thing is to make sure that each child is properly developing according to their age.  Speaking with the child will help decide whether or not they need extra help and attention. 

In African countries, professionals use a holistic approach to assessment.  The holistic approach assesses the social and emotional well-being of children.  African countries unfortunately see a lot of things such as hunger and disease.  The negative experiences can cause many problems for children, affecting their development.  Professionals want to figure out why a child is having problems and get them help.  If a standard IQ test was done for these children, a lot of them could have low scores.  The reason for low scores could not be because they are not intelligent, there could be many reasons as to why the score was low. 

References:
PEAR. The Holistic Student Assessment. (2014). http://www.pearweb.org/tools/hsa.html