Ages & Stages Questionnaires©: A Screening Tool - Pennsylvania ...

Ages & Stages
Questionnaires©:
A Screening Tool
For Pennsylvania’s
Child Welfare Workers
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OFFICE OF CHILDREN, YOUTH
AND FAMILIES (OCYF) POLICY:
Required for Child Abuse Prevention and
Treatment Act compliance
• Children under age 3, who have been the
victims of substantiated abuse cases MUST be
screened using ASQ/ASQ-SE within 30 days of
case acceptance
– Those with qualifying score must be referred for EI
– Those who test normally must be screened
periodically
• Recommended for all children under age 5 in
agency service
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Definitions
• Screening
• Assessment
• Evaluation
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Screening…
• A brief process that sorts those
who probably have problems
from those who do not.
• DOES NOT lead to a decision
about whether a child has a
developmental delay!
.
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Screening helps to…
• identify children who should
receive more intensive
evaluations through a
specialized program:
•Early intervention (EI)
•Mental health/social service
•Health systems
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Assessment
• Ongoing process through which
appropriately qualified personnel,
along with families, look at all areas
of a child’s development in order to
identify strengths and needs and to
design a program that addresses
the child’s developmental goals

Multi-disciplinary
evaluation
• An in-depth evaluation of one or
more developmental areas to
determine the nature and extent of
a physical or developmental
problem and determine if the child
is eligible for early intervention or
mental health services.
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Typically, when we think of
“screening activities,” they
are:
Information Gathering activities:
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Tests don’t make decisions.
People do!!!!
(Neisworth and Bagnato)
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Why screen?
• Screening young children is an
effective, efficient way for professionals
to catch problems and start treatment
when it does the most good—during
the crucial early years when the child’s
brain and body are developing so
rapidly.
http://www.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?page
name=ter_util_babybrainflash

• “Compensating for missed
opportunities, such as the failure
to detect early difficulties...often
requires extensive intervention, if
not heroic efforts, later in life.” —
From Neurons to Neighborhoods
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Formal Screening Tools
• Are based on the performance of
a representative norming sample
of young children
• Identify children who may have a
developmental delay
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Why the ASQ and ASQ:SE
were chosen…
• Can be completed by the child’s
parent, caregiver and/or the child
welfare worker
• Series of questionnaires for children 3
months to 5 years

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ASQ System: 2 Components
• ASQ
• ASQ:SE

Let’s look at the ASQ
Divided into 5 developmental
domains
• Communication
• Gross motor
• Fine motor
• Problem-solving
• Personal-social
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The ASQ
• 19 questionnaires between 4 and
60 months of age
• English, Spanish, French & Korean
versions available
• Can be completed in 10-20
minutes

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• Each questionnaire includes a checklist
of 30 questions
• And an Information Summary page
includes a section for scoring and an
area for recording general concerns.

• Items written at 4 th to 6 th grade
reading level, illustrations included
• Questions are in order from easy
to average skill level
• Questions alternate using male
and female pronouns
• Can be adapted for children who
are from culturally and
linguistically diverse backgrounds
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Adapting for Children who are
Culturally and Linguistically
Diverse
• Potential Solutions
• Omit the item and follow directions
for scoring with unanswered
questions
• Substitute alternative items that will
adequately assess the targeted skill
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A few key points about the
tool…
• Each questionnaire is valid for 1
month before and after the indicated
age. There is a 2-month window for
use.
• If a child was born more than 3 weeks
premature calculate her “corrected
age”. This can be done by adding the
weeks of pre-maturity to the child’s
date of birth. Use the child’s
corrected age until the child is 24
months.
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• User’s Manual- for more
information
• Suggested readings
• Intervention Activities
Sheets
• Complete technical
information
©
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Scoring
• Items are scored as:
• Yes – 10 pts
• Sometimes – 5 pts
• Not yet – 0 pts
Each response has a point value, total
these values and compare the total
score to the established cutoff
points. Scoring can take as little as
1 minute, no more than 5 minutes.
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The Ages & Stages
Questionnaires:
Social-Emotional©

The ASQ and ASQ:SE
Relationship
• ASQ:SE was
designed to focus on
the social and
emotional behaviors
of children
• Should be used in
conjunction with the
ASQ or other
screening tool
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ASQ:SE Focuses on
• Social competence
• The ability to engage in positive
interactions with peers, siblings,
parents and other adults
• Emotional competence
• The ability to effectively regulate
emotions to accomplish one’s goals
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ASQ:SE
• Completed by the child’s parents
or primary caregivers and/or the
child welfare worker
• Completed in 10-15 minutes

ASQ:SE
• 8 questionnaires that can be used
with children from 3 to 66 months
of age
• Questionnaires vary in length
• English and Spanish versions
available
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ASQ:SE
• Covers 7 areas
• Self-regulation
• Compliance
• Communication
• Adaptive
functioning
• Autonomy
• Affect
• Interaction with
people
• Includes general
concerns area

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ASQ:SE User’s Guide
What can you find in there?

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Let’s look at a questionnaire!
• ASQ:SE 30 month questionnaire

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Scoring
• Items are scored as
• Most of the time – 0 points
• Sometimes – 5 points
• Rarely or never – 10 points
• Parents/Practitioner can check each item
if it is a concern- 5 points
• Scores for each item are combined for a
total score. A high score may indicate
problems. Each questionnaire has an
indicated cutoff score.

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Reminder:
• The results from the ASQ and the
ASQ:SE will not identify which
children have delays and which do
not. It simply suggests which
children need to be referred on for
further in-depth evaluation.

Discussing results with
families
• Share the completed screener with
family
• Listen to family’s perspective
• Discuss the scoring section
• On target- no need for referral
• On the border- monitor and follow up at
intervals per DPW policy
• Beyond cutoff – discuss need for referral for
further evaluation to Early Intervention
• Together make a decision about next
steps
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Making a referral
• Who refers: worker must, if child is in
custody; parent/caregiver may, if child
is not in custody
• Where to call – provide contact
information to parent/caregiver
• Parent permission to share information
• Follow up to find out if child eligible
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Early Intervention is:
• Free
• Voluntary
• A system of supports to the family
and child in order to enhance the
child’s developmental capacities
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Early Intervention Evaluation
• A comprehensive look at a child’s skills
and behaviors in all five
developmental domains by qualified
professionals
• Determines eligibility for further early
intervention services
• Makes recommendations to address
areas of concern

Next steps:
Implementation
• Share this training with your staff
• Decide how screening will be implemented
• Who, when, how often, how will results be
shared with families
• Document your process in agency and/or
parent handbook/manual
• Before beginning to screen a child not in
custody, get parent permission (see pg in
manual for sample)
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Next steps and
support for you…
• What are your plans as you leave
the session?
• What support may you need to
get started, or for follow up once
you have started?
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Questions??
Need assistance?
Contact …
Jennifer Murphy 484-955-8264
jenmur@berksiu.org
Dina Stipetic 412-728-6622
dinsti@berksiu.org
Jill Kachmar 717-346-0445
jkachmar@state.pa.us
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…The end!
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