In the past I have used the ESI-R and ESI-K as the developmental screen in schools, and this year I am at a preschool that uses the ASQ-3 and the ASQ-SE. I do recommend people do some training to use these tools for several reasons.
First, not all staff (or parents!) have the child development background, degree etc to "read between the lines" of what the questions and activities are looking for -- and what they are NOT looking at. Many people without training (or an ECE degree, which would include at least one course in Assessment Tools and how to correctly administer them) will reword questions, make guesses, ask incorrectly, not prepare the proper setting for the tasks, and sometimes not take it seriously enough. These all cause inaccurate scorings and data.
Second, I have heard supervisors quell anxiety about completing these by telling teachers that it isn't important to be accurate. But in fact these screenings (despite being ONLY screenings, not clinical evaluations) are referenced when families or schools refer children for thorough assessments for possible special services. Teams that begin the evaluation process in public school systems do not require these screening tools (parents can refer their child directly for evaluation and probably would not have these tools unless they were done in school.) But if these HAVE been done on a child, they are considered data to become part of the child's file, and so the data does need to be as accurate as possible (not perfect and not on a clinician's level -- but an accurate look at what the child displays and presents in their current academic setting.)
I would suggest when a program first begins these screenings that at least one on-site administrator takes a training on the tools they plan to use; that person can simply do one or more staff meetings to go through the process start to finish, and answer any questions about it.
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Mars April Caulton
Teacher & Teaching Artist
Chicago IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-07-2019 02:33 PM
From: Nina Burrows
Subject: Advice on how to start using ASQ-3 in our short-day preschool
Hello!
I would like to start using a developmental screening next year (ASQ-3) and am trying to figure out how to best do it.
Have any of you recently done this? If so,
1. How did you do the training?
2. Did teachers do the screening, or did you send it home to parents?
3. How much time did it take?
We have some children who are here 3 hours, and others who are here 5 hours. Some only come two days a week, while some come all 5 days.
It seems like a good idea to do this, but I am not sure how.
Thank you for your help. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed!
Nina Burrows
FUMC Preschool
Fort Worth, TX
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Nina Burrows
Preschool Director
FUMC Preschool
Fort Worth TX
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