PRESCHOOL SCREENING
The Berlin Public School System’s Preschool Screening Program occurs on a yearly basis in the month of February. This year, preschoolers between the ages of 2 years 4 months of age and four years 6 months of age before January 30th are eligible to be screened. Staff members including special education teachers, speech/language clinicians, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and school psychologists participate in the screening process.
Linda Holian, Director of Pupil Personnel Services, is the coordinator of the program. The screening program assists the school district to identify children who may be in need of additional evaluation. The screening program serves as part of Berlin’s Child Find, a state-mandated activity that seeks to identify children with developmental weaknesses that might impair a child’s ability to learn.
Our screening program for preschoolers 2.4 years of age to 3.1 years of age occurs in a play based format. Children are observed in small groups (4 youngsters at a time) for approximately 30 minutes. During this time staff members engage children in play activities designed to provide them with information about the child’s functioning in a number of developmental areas including receptive and expressive language, social interaction skills, fine and gross motor skills, and cognitive skills. In addition to this observational period youngsters also participate in a hearing screening administered by a speech/language clinician.
Our screening program for preschoolers age 3.2 years of age and older occurs in a somewhat more structured format lasting approximately 30-40 minutes. The DIAL-4, a standardized screening assessment is administered. Youngsters are introduced to the screening process by playing with a staff member at a play dough table. Once comfortable, they then move to three additional “stations”, working with staff members on standardized tasks designed to assess a youngster’s functioning in the areas of Motor, Concepts, and Language. The youngster’s performance is then compared to a normative sample of same age youngsters. In addition to this screening instrument youngsters also participate in a hearing screening administered by a speech/language clinician.
In addition to the information attained through the play activities and the DIAL-IV, parents are asked to complete a short developmental history and rate their child’s performance in a variety of areas. This provides the evaluators with additional information about each child’s functioning at home and in their community as seen by their parents on a daily basis. Should parents report significant behavioral concerns this will be further addressed by screening staff.
After the screening is completed students’ performance are assessed by the screening staff. Parents receive a report about their child’s performance in the mail. However, if there are concerns about a child, parents will be asked to return for a meeting (Planning and Placement Team meeting) where the concerns will be discussed. With parental permission, further assessment of their child in a more individualized play-based format will occur. If concerns are validated, students may be eligible for a variety of services under the auspices of special education, ranging from itinerant speech/language services to inclusion in a special education preschool program.
