• Screening Services
     
    Screening is a quick way to make sure your child is developing on schedule. Screening results show your child's strengths and areas that may need support. Following the screening, we will verbally share the results with you and will also provide you with a written summary. If concerns are noted, you will be provided with simple, fun activities to do to strengthen those skills as well as information on other local resources that may be of assistance to your family.
     
    Parents as Teachers screens children once each school year beginning at three months of age until they enter kindergarten. If you receive personal visits, screening will typically be completed during these visits. If you do not have a parent educator (due to waiting to be assigned one, participating in our PAT Lite program, or not being enrolled in PAT), we offer screening appointments at our center. If you are interested in screening, fill out this form to have one of our parent educators contact you to set up an individual appointment.  
     
    A complete screening includes checks of your child's health, hearing, vision, and development. 
    Our program screens using the following tools:  

    Development

    For children 3 months to 35 months of age, we use the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, 3rd edition (ASQ-3). It takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. The ASQ-3 asks questions about five important areas of development to create a well-rounded snapshot of your child's skills and abilities:
    • Communication assesses language, both what a child understands and how they follow directions (receptive) and how they vocalize, use words, and start to make sentences (expressive). 
    • Gross motor assesses large muscle movement and coordination (body, arms, and legs).
    • Fine motor assesses eye/hand and hand/finger movements and coordination, and pre-writing skills.
    • Problem-solving assesses skills of thinking and learning, how a child solves problems, and pre-academic skills. 
    • Personal-social assesses self-help skills (e.g. feeding, dressing, toileting) and social interactions with others. 
    The Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional, 2nd Edition (ASQ:SE2) addresses social and emotional development, and is typically used during our screening appointments held at Southwest.  Alternatively, we may offer the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) as an assessment of children's social emotional development (resilience) in the areas of initiative, self-regulation, and attachment/relationships for children over 18 months of age. Either will take about 15 minutes to complete.
     
    For children 3-5 years old, we use the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning, 4th edition (DIAL-4). This takes 45-60 minutes. The DIAL-4 asks children to complete tasks in the domains of language, concepts, and motor skills. You will have a parent questionnaire to fill out regarding social-emotional and personal-social skills. Alternatively, we may offer the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) as an assessment of children's social emotional development (resilience) in the areas of initiative, self-regulation, attachment/relationships, and behavioral concerns or the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional, 2nd Edition (ASQ:SE2) which addresses social and emotional development  
      
    Health, Hearing, and Vision
    A health record form will be completed by the parent for each child. This form asks about your child's illnesses, teeth, hearing, vision, and overall health. Sharing this information helps complete a picture of their strengths and factors that could affect their development.
     
    Hearing screening includes a functional hearing screening (monitoring their response to different noisemakers at a variety of pitches). For children 3 and older, we may also use an audiometer upon request, where they will wear headphones and we will ask them to respond to quiet tones at low, medium, and high pitches (those most used in speech).  
     
    All children will receive a functional vision screening which includes items such as using a penlight to check pupil response to light and checking how the eyes move together (tracking). Children three and older will also complete an acuity test, which uses an eye chart with symbols rather than letters.
     
     
    You will be an important part of the screening--you know your child best!  The screener may ask you a list of questions, and will ask your child to do specific things. You may be asked to repeat the directions for your child.  Some of these tasks will be very easy for them. Others may be too hard. It's OK if they don't do every single thing. Don't act disappointed or surprised at your child's responses. Praise their efforts even when his answers are not right.
     
      
    Here is what parents have had to say about their experience with screening: 

    ·       “Thanks for getting us in the screening.  Just wanted you to know we caught [our child’s] vision problem VERY EARLY.  She is in glasses now at 14 months, however since we caught it so early she could possibly not even need glasses by the time she's 5 if we can get it corrected!  We tell everyone, when they ask how we know because she is so young, that you guys caught it!”

    ·       “[We discovered that our child] had a speech delay so we have early intervention and speech therapy thanks to PAT”

    ·       “[Screening] allowed us to know where our daughter stands developmentally and how to aid that development.”