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Rebecca J. Gokiert, Winnie Chow, Betsabeh Parsa, Nasreen Rajani, Jeffrey Bisanz, Christine Vandenberghe Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, Families (CUP), Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta Yvonne Chui Multicultural Health Brokers Co-Operative, Edmonton, Alberta
The first few years of life are extremely important in setting the foundation for long-term learning, behaviour and health outcomes as difficulties in early childhood can lead to later troubles in school performance, social adjustment and health. Identifying difficulties in early childhood, such as developmental concerns and health risks, can lead to better long-term outcomes for children. This is accomplished through developmental screening. A developmental screen is a brief questionnaire or tool used to identify children that may need further assessment or intervention.
Early intervention programs that implement developmental screening are aimed at the early identification of possible difficulties in a child’s development so that intervention can be provided. In the province of Alberta, an early childhood developmental screening project is being piloted. As part of the project, we studied the use of a developmental screening tool with families from diverse cultural backgrounds. This project has a number of diverse partners from the health services, education (i.e., school boards), children and family services, and non-profit sectors.
The project’s goals are to build parent and community early childhood development capacity, and create a support network for families with young children. Through the project, parents of 18- and 36-month-old children complete a developmental screening tool—a questionnaire about their child across various areas of development (e.g., language, problem solving, fine motor skills and personal-social skills).
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