Healthy Child Development…There’s an App for That
By Katy Lois, Grand Beginnings
Grand County parents with children under five, the notion of electronically tracking their children’s development is about to become reality. Effective August 2013, nine families, two health clinics and an early childhood program began piloting an electronic, online-capable application (app) intended to revolutionize the current developmental screening system in the community, a project set to expand county-wide soon after the pilot is evaluated.
The app hinges upon a standardized developmental screening tool, the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, an evidence-based tool already used in paper form to screen many young children in Grand County. The app puts that screening tool into electronic format so that, within ten minutes, parents, doctors and early childhood providers can complete the screening from their home, office or personal device. The results will be scored accurately and instantly, providing a snapshot of where a child is developmentally, complete with individualized activities to help a child learn and grow, right at a parent’s fingertips.
Developmental screenings are crucially important to the health and learning of young children. Every child learns and grows at different rates, and it can be difficult to tell whether a child is developing normally just by looking at them. Sometimes, kids need a boost to maximize their potential; a boost that can only be provided if a screening is performed to detect that a boost is necessary. Moreover, research shows that the earlier a developmental delay is identified, the better the outcome for the child.
Completing this screening is just the start. A completed screening becomes the source of important information about how a child is learning and developing, and the true novelty of this app lies in its ability to share that information with various entities within the community. With a simple touch, the app gives families a fast, easy and reliable way to share a child’s screening results with their health care and/or early childhood provider, so they can work together to make sure each child gets the best possible support and keep track of a child’s progress over time.
The app is expected to benefit Grand County in multiple ways. For one, it will advance local information exchange to increase the efficiency of the current developmental screening system, saving time and money as a community. Even more importantly, it will move Grand County one step closer to a community where all children are ready for school, love learning, have high self-esteem, and, ultimately, succeed in life.
Once fully underway, Grand County will be the first county in all of Colorado to innovate in such a way, serving as a pioneer for developmental screening systems in communities across the nation.
The app is a product of a multi-stakeholder partnership formed between four organizations working to serve the community: Patient Tools, Inc., Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD), Grand County Rural Health Network, and Grand Beginnings. To learn more about the app, visit grandbeginnings.org or call 970-725-3391.
