MSU Extension Child & Family Development

Have you ever wondered about your child’s overall development? Many parents and caregivers do a great job following along with, and even tracking, how their children are doing with their speech and language, motor skills and social skills. However, there are early childhood professionals who can track your child’s developmental milestones while looking for any delays that may be happening. This article series will focus on developmental evaluations and how you can request, prepare for, and ultimately participate in an online or in-person early childhood developmental evaluation.

In the previous article in this Michigan State University Extension series, we discussed important tips to prepare for the actual evaluation and preparing to welcome or meet with an early childhood professional for possibly the first time. In this fifth article, we will focus on what actually happens during a developmental evaluation, including what areas of development will be screened, how long you can expect for the evaluation, and what participation may be asked of you and your child.

The day has arrived, it is time for an early childhood professional to conduct the developmental evaluation and check your child’s progress in multiple areas including, but not limited to, gross-motor, fine-motor, speech/language, problem solving, social and emotional and coping skills. Depending on the specific evaluation conducted, these titles may be slightly different and other categories can be included. The domains suggested and described here are part of the Infant Toddler Developmental Assessment (IDA) and The Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ). For this article, we will be focusing on the process for the six areas mentioned.

Before the professional begins the evaluation, they may have some paperwork to complete as well as take time to discuss concerns you may have regarding your child. You can expect an in-person evaluation to take around 1.5 - 2 hours, depending on how your child responds to the evaluator’s tasks. The online ASQ typically takes no more than half-an-hour, depending on the age range you are checking.

We will start with examples for how the evaluator will check your child’s motor development. Gross motor activities may include seeing how your child sits and crawls, stands, tosses a ball, walks, climbs onto a chair, kicks a ball, stands on one foot, jumps, walks upstairs and balance on each foot. Fine motor activities may include watching hand motions, grasping a toy, holding a small block, picking up very small objects, tossing a ball, building a tower with small blocks, holding a crayon, stringing beads, coloring and cutting paper with scissors.

For speech and language, the evaluator will use typical types of activities to check progress. These include: watching for a vocal response, seeing if they vocalize to people, if they are laughing and squealing, making vowel sounds, saying “mama, dada, baba”, using “dada” and “mama” as names, playing pat-a-cake, responding to “no”, imitating words and sounds, naming objects, identifying body parts, following 2-3 step a directions, naming pictures, using more than 20 words, using 2-3 word sentences consistently, responding to simple questions and/or can using the name of familiar objects. The caregivers will answer many of these questions, as children may not perform skills on demand. From agesandstages.com, this is known as “parent reporting.”

A problem solving skill assessment will involve activities such as: uncovering a toy, exploring toys, putting one object inside another, finding a toy behind a screen, building a tower of 3-4 cubes, carrying or hugging a doll/stuffed toy, playing with life-sized objects (broom for example), knowing the use of three objects (typically household items), building a tower of 6- 12 cubes, solving a puzzle with 3-10 pieces, copying a circle and imitating another’s activities.

A social and emotional development review often requires a good deal of parent reporting via questions asked by the evaluator. Can the child express pleasure and discomfort, are they showing pleasure when being social, can they be comforted, do they laugh and squeal, how do they react to strangers, are there many recognizable emotions, will they show some anxiety when separating from caregivers, do you see affection towards familiar adults, do they show pride in new tasks (such as clapping, laughing), are you noting a good range of feelings, and are they expressing emotions in an appropriate way?

Finally, a coping assessment will often involve activities and questions for caregivers such as: will they look around their environment, are they comforting themselves, are they initiating social contact, do they push away an unwanted object or person, are they using toys to relieve stress, will they look for a hidden object, do they show pleasure in new skills, will they try to do things for themselves, have they begun to play cooperatively, do they use speech to ask for help, will they try to defend themselves, and can they recover from small hurts on their own?

Once the assessment has concluded, the evaluator will walk you through their first impressions. Know that it does take time for the evaluator to complete a final review and you will often receive a copy of the assessment within the timeframe they share with you (often within 14 days is a reasonable expectation). At this point, do not be afraid to ask questions or relay your concerns once again as this is a time when you are at the beginning of a new process and increasing knowledge is one of the best ways to begin advocating for your child and family.

You can learn more about child development, find parent and caregiver webinars and view family activities by visiting the Michigan State University Extension Child and Family Development webpage and the MI Stronger Family Facebook page.