Developmental Assessment

Performing a developmental assessment on children from infancy to adolescence is vital for the future health and development of the child. A developmental assessment should be performed on the child when a more in-depth assessment is needed on an individual who may be experiencing a developmental delay or problem. The developmental assessment will help assist providers to identify children who may need an intervention, and differentiating them form children who are experiencing a normal verse abnormal variation in development to guide the plan of care and manage the child's concerns. The developmental assessment will confirm a developmental problem, identify the type of problem, explain the level of functioning in one or more developmental
The essential components of the developmental assessment takes into the consideration the child's age, and looks at the areas of language, motor, social-emotional, and cognitive skills, and the regulatory and sensory systems of the
A tool to use for language development can be the Early Language Milestone (ELM) or the Denver Articulation Screening exam (DASE). For social-emotional screening, the provider can use the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Social-Emotional (ASQ-SE), the behavioral Assessment of Baby's Emotional and Social Style (BABES), Brief Infant/Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (BITSEA), or the Carey Temperament Scales. With all the tools available, it will be important as providers to take many other things into consideration such as the component that are you are assessing, the availability of the tool in the office (some tools have to be purchased), if the provider is credentialed to administer the tool, the child/parent's educational level to complete the assessment, time (some tools take longer to complete then others), space, and so forth. An acute tool to use to assess the developmental components of the child is the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ). This tool is available in different languages, takes less than 15-20 minutes to complete, evaluates the development of communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem-solving and personal-social skills, and has psychometric research behind it that identifies the tool as a reliable and valid assessment tool (Burns, Dunn, Brady, Star, & Glosser,