Section 3

Early

Early and accurate identification of infants and young children who have develop 

mental delays is critical to timely delivery of early intervention services. One strate 

Identification

gy to improve appropriate identification of young children is to use standardized

developmental screening tools during well child care visits. The goal of develop 

Using

mental screening is to identify the infants and young children who require more

Standardized

extensive evaluation. In order to impact large numbers of children, screening proce 

dures should be easy to administer, appropriate for diverse populations, and relative 

Developmental

ly inexpensive.

24

Screens do not diagnose problems, but can quickly provide direc 

tion about whether more testing is needed. Efficient administration and scoring of

Screening

screens frees time for follow up, resource identification, member education, and

treatment.

Tools

The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Children with Disabilities

recommends various developmental screening tools.

25

Many of these tools allow

parents to complete self guided screening tools at home or while they wait for

appointments. Clinicians, office staff, or health plan staff need only score and inter 

pret the results, saving substantial amounts of professional time.

Many Medicaid managed care plans in the BCAP Workgroup on Enhancing Child

Development Services in Medicaid Managed Care worked to incorporate standardized

developmental screening into EPSDT well child visits. Health plans recognized that

implementing the use of standardized screening tools could lead to more timely

identification of developmental delay, early intervention, strengthened parent 

provider partnerships, as well as improved clinical and administrative practices.

Types of screening tools used include parent questionnaires, direct elicitation 

(history/interviews), and observation. Figure 2 shows a comparison of commonly

used developmental screening tools.

Recommendations on Developmental Surveillance and Screening of Infants

and Young Children

The American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Developmental

Surveillance and Screening of Infants and Young Children provides recommen 

dations for screening infants and young children and intervening with families to

identify developmental delays and disabilities.

26

This statement is noteworthy

for acknowledging the importance of parents in assessing their children s devel 

opment.  In particular, the AAP highlights several standardized parent report

tools  the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS), Ages and

Stages Questionnaires (ASQ), and Child Development Inventories (CDI) and

the emerging scientific data to support use of these tools to facilitate ongoing

developmental surveillance.

24

J. Squires, L. Potter and D. Bricker,  The ASQ User's Guide,  (Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co, 2002). 

25

American Academy of Pediatrics, op. cit.

26

Ibid.

17