Pediatricians

	Screening doesn't have to be overly time consuming. Simple strategies can be incorporated into office visits to help identify children at risk—much like routinely checking a child’s height and weight.

Pediatricians are the professionals most likely to see a child on a regular basis. You have the opportunity to play a crucial role in identifying children with developmental delays at a young age.

Most pediatricians use clinical judgment alone to identify potential developmental problems. But studies have shown that while clinical judgment is undoubtably valuable, when used alone, it detects fewer than 30% of children who have developmental disabilities.[1, 2]

		Reimbursement Questions? Pediatricians can be reimbursed for developmental screening. Donwload this Coding Fact Sheet from the AAP.

When pediatricians complement their clinical judgment with the use of a standardized screening tool, they identify 70% to 80% of children with developmental disabilities.[3] The percentage rises when screening is conducted at periodic intervals (rather than at a single point in time or only as problems are suspected).

AAP Recommendations

Given the critical role pediatricians can play in the early identification of children at risk, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends in its policy statement on screening that pediatricians and primary care providers:

• screen all infants and young children for developmental delays during preventive care visits
• present the results of the screening to the family using a culturally sensitive, family-centered approach
• maintain links with community-based resources, such as early intervention, school, and other programs, and coordinate care with them
• increase parents' awareness of developmental delays and disabilities and resources for intervention

Overcome Screening Barriers with Parent-Report Tools

		Why Not Denver-II? Of those pediatricians who do use a formal developmental screening instrument, most use the Denver-II. However, as reported by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the Child Neurology Society (CNS), “research has found that [the Denver-II] is insensitive and lacks specificity.” (In other words, it does not do a good job of identifying which children have developmental problems and which do not.) For that reason, neither AAN nor CNS recommends use of the Denver-II.[5]

Of the screening tools available, parent-report tools such as Ages & Stages Questionnaires® (ASQ) are the most time- and cost-efficient—time and cost being the two biggest barriers pediatricians face when implementing screening.

With a secure, customizable website through ASQ Family Access, parents can easily fill out the questionnaires online, saving your program time and money. Or choose the paper format-mail the questionnaires or give them to parents to fill out in a waiting area, and you'll get the information you need about a child in advance of a visit.

Concerned about overidentifying children with delays? Though screening does result in occasional referrals of children later found not to qualitfy for services, most overreferrals are shown to be for children with below average development who would benefit from extra attention.[4]

Learn how pediatricians in Illinois successfully screen with ASQ >>

Discover how ASQ helped identify delays in pre-term children >>