The Need for Screening

“The screening program has helped me prioritize which issues to discuss with parents in a short well child visit.” – Shari Nethersole MD

“It actually saves time.” – Ron Samuels MD

It’s reasonable to question the value of incorporating a new screening procedure when we are pressed on time and resources. And since most of us already use milestone checklists and our clinical judgment, you may wonder if that isn’t enough.

However, we currently face two problems:

• While we are picking up the more impaired children, we’re missing many who have more subtle issues, children who may be great responders to intervention.
• We can’t possibly review language, social, fine motor, gross motor, functional, and behavioral development with the same thoroughness for every child at every visit.

Though most of us use checklists of developmental skills, these do not provide standardized cut-offs for the number of missed milestones that indicate a need for referral. Validated tools, by contrast, provide standardized data to guide practice and assure uniform care for all patients.