Development Monitoring, Screening, and Evaluation: What Does it All Mean Anyway? And Why does it Matter?
By: Sara Silva, STARS Coach, Child Care Connections
Young children are going through a period of rapid growth in their development. Not only that but new skills build on top of existing skills. This means that if we can catch atypical development early, we can provide early interventions that may lessen the impact on the child’s overall development. So, what is the difference between developmental monitoring, screening, and evaluation anyway? And why should we have access to all 3 for the children in our care? The CDC does a great job of answering these questions in their free resources such as their:
- Watch Me! Celebrating Milestones and Sharing Concerns a 1-hour, web-based course (also available in Spanish) and their
- Developmental Screening page (also available in Spanish) which can be conveniently printed out as a handout for our own professional, and family’s, information.
Briefly, developmental monitoring can be completed by anyone and it often involves completing a checklist based on children’s typical development (such as the CDC’s Milestones Checklists). It is our first line of defense in catching any potential developmental concerns. Our next line of defense comes from developmental screening. These are formal, research-validated tools that are completed by trained lay persons and/or families. An example of a developmental screener is the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and the DECA (check-out this resource to find out more about available screening tools). If the screener identifies an area of concern, it is important to have access to community resources that can provide developmental evaluations. These formal assessment tools are generally completed by trained professionals whenever there is a concern about a child’s development in order to identify and diagnose any potential developmental delays and conditions. Just like children’s development builds on previously developed skills, so these different tools build on each other to find children who may need additional support and provide them with the services they need to succeed.
Here’s another issue: have you ever looked at a developmental monitoring checklist and wondered what the authors mean when they are talking about different developmental milestones? Sometimes we can wonder if a skill we are observing matches the criteria of the checklist’s authors. The CDC has kindly taken away some of this confusion with their Milestones Photo and Video Library. Here you can click on a milestone age and then view photographs and videos of each milestone in four domains of development: social/emotional, language/communication, cognitive, and movement/physical development. This resource is also an easy way to show families what we are looking for in their child’s development – from a reputable source. For more great (and free!) resource from the CDC visit: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/freematerials.html
To find out more about screeners or to get support implementing one in your program, please contact our Family Engagement Specialist (Sarah Peterson, sarah@cccmontana.org, 406.5483662) or one of our STARS Consultants (Brandi Thomas, brandi@cccmontana.org, 406.548.3650, and Kristin Horn, kristin@cccmontana.org, 406.548.3664).
