What is Preschool Screening?

Preschool Screenings: Why Go? What Does This Mean? How Does This Work?

What is a Preschool Screening? 

In a nutshell, preschool screenings are a brief, yet comprehensive, assessment of a child’s pre-academic skills. There are many advantages to having your toddler’s academic readiness, speech, language, motor, hearing, vision and social-emotional skills screened. School districts across the nation offer preschool screenings. Depending on your community, screenings may be held a few times a year, quarterly, or even monthly. If you have a 3-5 year old (or a child who is nearly three), not yet enrolled in school, you might consider looking into your school district’s preschool or early childhood screenings to ensure your child is developing skills appropriately and that he or she can enroll in school when necessary. As a parent, you can always defer enrollment in a preschool program that is offered if it doesn’t seem like a good fit for your family. However, most parents find preschool screenings to be informational and are often pleasantly surprised at the programs and resources offered at screenings.

Why Do School Districts Offer Early Childhood or Preschool Screenings?

1. Screenings help you to learn more about how your child is growing and developing.

2. Screenings help connect parent and child with school and community resources if needed.

3. Screenings help answer any parenting questions/concerns you may have.

4. Screening children at an early age helps identify any concerns earlier, which means there will be a greater amount of time for support for parents and little ones. 

5. There is no cost to families for preschool screenings (i.e., those offered through the public school system). If you’ve had a concern about your child, but have been conflicted about seeking an evaluation elsewhere, take advantage of the free screening to determine whether further evaluation is recommended. Many times, if a need for evaluation is identified (e.g., if your child can’t speak clearly or isn’t speaking yet), the school district will set up a speech evaluation with one of their professionals to provide an evaluation that is free of charge for you. This may mean that your child will have to attend one of the early childhood programs in order to receive services (if recommended based on the results of the evaluation).

How Can I Prepare My Child for the Screening?

1. Make sure your child gets a good night’s sleep.

2. Make sure your child is well fed. Bring a snack with you in case you have to wait awhile.

3. Talk to your child about the upcoming experience before you go. Drive your child past the screening site and tell them that they’re going to get to go there and play games, learn like the big kids, and that they mean earn a sticker if they try their best. This will likely help prepare your child if he/she is shy or apprehensive in new situations.

4. Think about your schedule beforehand. If you know your work schedule will be changing or that your child will only be able to attend a 3-day per week program, let the program coordinator know. Think about whether your child will require an AM or a PM time slot. Don't forget to think about when their nap time is and how you can arrange a nap before or after the program's hours. The preschool directors want your child to be able to attend and will work with you to find a program that will be a good fit.

5. Find out if you need to bring proofs of residency when you go. School districts will want you to prove residency before offering you a spot in one of their programs. Check with your school district, but many would like three or four forms. These proofs may include: license/ID, mortgage bill, lease, electric or gas bill, to name a few.

What Happens During The Screening?

School districts across the nation don't have a uniform screening or procedure. However, many places set up stations where your child's skills will be screened (i.e., briefly assessed). Stations may include the following:

• Speech-language (Receptive, expressive, pragmatic language and speech sound production)
• Motor (Fine and gross motor)
• Concepts (Prepositions, colors, qualitative and quantitative concepts, etc)
• Hearing (The child might be asked to place a toy in a bucket when he/she hears a beep)
• Vision (The child might be asked to match shapes to what is shown on the screening device, cover one eye and tell what he/she sees, etc).

The individuals who work the screenings understand that this is a new situation for the children and they understand that not all kids are going to show off all of their skills. A parent questionnaire may be given to obtain information about the family, child, home, and any concerns a parent might have. This information will provide valuable information for the early childhood team. The early childhood professionals do not expect the children to know all of the answers or to be able to complete all of the tasks independently. All of the tasks mentioned help give the educators a better idea of what would be an appropriate educational setting for each child and which, if any, services may benefit the child and family. 

What Happens After The Screening?

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you exactly how your school district will operate based on your child’s performance. My advice is to go into screenings with a goal in mind. Figure out exactly what it is that you hope to gain from this experience. Do you want to find out whether your child may need speech or occupational therapy? Do you want confirmation that your child is developing skills appropriately? Do you want to find out whether or not preschool will be a good fit for your child? When you are called to review your child's performance with one of the educators or directors, ask your questions then. 

Attending a preschool screening may seem overwhelming, but I guarantee you’ll be happy, even relieved, when you have a better understanding of what your child’s skill level is for each domain and how your community’s school district educates little ones. 

Thank you for reading! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I'm happy to help!