Regular screening provides a fast and helpful look at how your child is doing in important areas like communication, social skills, motor skills, and problem-solving skills. Screening can identify your child’s strengths, uncover new milestones to celebrate, and reveal any areas where your child may need support. It helps you understand your child’s development and know what to look for next. And it helps you work with doctors and educators to plan next steps when it makes the most difference—your child’s critical first years of life.

Yes! Studies have shown that parent-completed screeners like ASQ® are very effective at pinpointing child progress. Information parents give about their children is usually highly accurate. Plus a parent-report tool like ASQ calls for your unique perspective on how your child behaves and performs skills in natural settings like your home. That means it can capture the big picture of your child’s development better than a screening that takes place in an unfamiliar setting.

The great thing about ASQ is that it’s strengths-focused—the emphasis is really on what your child can do. It’s the perfect way to keep track of milestones and celebrate them as your child grows and develops.

The ASQ screeners are sets of valid, reliable, and age-appropriate questionnaires that are filled out by the true expert on your child—you! There are two screeners in the ASQ family: ASQ®-3, which looks at key areas of early development, and ASQ®:SE-2, which focuses on social-emotional development.

ASQ-3 is a set of simple questionnaires trusted for more than 20 years to check child development. There are 21 ASQ-3 question­naires for use with children from 1 month to 5½ years old (one questionnaire for each age range). Here are the five important areas of development that each questionnaire looks at:

1. Communication: Your child’s language skills, both what your child understands and what he or she can say.

2. Gross Motor: How your child uses their arms and legs and other large muscles for sitting, crawling, walking, running, and other activities.

3. Fine Motor: Your child’s hand and finger movement and coordination.

4. Problem Solving: How your child plays with toys and solves problems.

5. Personal-Social: Your child’s self-help skills and interactions with others.

The “Overall” section asks you open-ended questions about your child’s development and lets you weigh in with any concerns you may have.

ASQ:SE-2 is a set of questionnaires with a deep, exclusive focus on social-emotional development. There are 9 ASQ:SE-2 question­naires for use with children from 1 month to 6 years old. Here are the seven important areas of development that each questionnaire looks at:

1. Autonomy: Your child’s ability or willingness to self-initiate or respond without guidance (moving to independence).

2. Compliance: Your child’s ability or willingness to conform to the direction of others and follow rules.

3. Adaptive functioning: Your child’s success or ability to cope with bodily needs (sleeping, eating, toileting, safety).

4. Self-regulation: Your child’s ability or willingness to calm or settle down or adjust to physiological or environmental conditions or stimulation.

5. Affect: Your child’s ability or willingness to demonstrate their own feelings and empathy for others.

6. Interaction: Your child’s ability or willingness to respond to or initiate social responses with parents, other adults, and peers.

7. Social-communication: Your child’s ability or willingness to interact with others by responding to or initiating verbal or nonverbal signals to indicate interests, needs, or feelings.

The “Overall” section asks open-ended questions about your child’s social-emotional development and lets you weigh in with any concerns.

You’ll only need 10–15 minutes to fill out an ASQ-3 or ASQ:SE-2 questionnaire. It’s that quick and easy!

How does it work?

• You’ll receive an ASQ questionnaire from your child’s healthcare provider or early childhood educator. They might send it to you in the mail, give you access to a secure website where you can fill it out, or give you the questionnaire during an in-person visit.

• You’ll answer each question based on what your child is able to do now. Your answers help show your child’s strengths and areas where they may need practice or support.

• After you complete the ASQ questionnaire, just return it to your child’s healthcare or education professional. They’ll score the questionnaire, share the results with you, and discuss any follow-up steps.

If your child is developing without concerns, there won’t be specific follow-up steps—just keep playing and interacting with your child as they grow and reach new milestones. If your child has trouble with some skills, your program will help you with next steps, including a possible referral for more assessment. Whether or not there are concerns, your program might also give you some fun and easy ASQ learning activities to try with your child before the next screening.