Developmental screening is another way by which professionals are able to understand if a child is developing in a typical way, or if a child needs close monitoring or further assessment. A screening test is used to check if there might be any cause of concern regarding the child’s development. To conduct a developmental screening, a standardized and validated measure, such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaire or the Denver Developmental Screening Test II might be used. It’s very important tom say that the screening results should NEVER be used to establish a diagnosis or to design an intervention plan.

The screening tools do not study child development in detail. These results can sometimes be false positive (when there is no real development concern) or false negative (when there is a developmental delay or a specific condition that is missed).

Screening can happen through the infancy years and can be done on an ongoing basis through different developmental stages.

During the primary and later school years, teachers may use academic screening in place of developmental screening. Academic screening is part of an identification system for children with developmental disabilities that is called Response to Intervention.