During an ASQ training, the trainers encouraged use of materials that the family has access to in their home when completing the questionnaires. I read in the ASQ-3 User's Guide that it is recommended to use some novel items to increase parent-child interest. How should I balance using items from the family's home with novel items during home visits?
It is important that toys and materials used when completing ASQ-3 be relevant to the child’s cultural practices and it is ideal that those materials are accessible to the family. Using materials that exist in the home in new ways, such as stacking with plastic cups and putting lids on pots and pans, may increase the…
Currently, our child care teachers fill out an ASQ-3 on children prior to parent-teacher conferences while a home visitor has parents fill out an ASQ-3 at home in the same timeframe. The 2 separate questionnaires can be discussed at the parent-teacher conference. However, we screen twice a year and having both teachers and parents complete the questionnaires means that there is a possibility of a teacher completing the same ASQ-3 interval two times and the parent completing it twice as well.
It is great to have both parents and child care providers complete the questionnaires and discuss results as your program is doing. Completing the same age interval four times is not ideal, especially if the child's scores were above the cutoffs during the first administration. One suggestion is to space your screeni…
We are discussing how to best incorporate ASQ with our pediatric practice. Some of the items, particularly in the Fine Motor and Problem Solving areas, require observation with "props" such as Cheerios, strings, blocks, balls, sticks, etc. We have parents fill the questionnaires out in our office waiting room, but in some cases the parents have to guess because we do not have the materials here. Does this make ASQ-3 less reliable?
Your pediatric practice could consider a couple options to help parents confidently answer the questions. Some practices send parents the questionnaires in advance of the appointment, either by mail or electronically through ASQ Family Access . Having parents complete the questionnaire at home 1-2 weeks in advance o…
We are conducting screenings during a Healthy Kids Fair and only have approximately 15 minutes per child. One professional will help with ASQ-3 and another will help with ASQ:SE-2. Do you have any recommendations on how to do the tools in a modified version so that we can complete in our short time frame and do not have to print off so many pages? Which questions are critical?
There is no modified version of ASQ-3 or ASQ:SE-2, and it is unlikely to have parents complete both tools in less than 15 minutes. However, you could focus on ASQ-3 and only complete ASQ:SE-2 if a parent had concerns or the Personal-Social domain on ASQ-3 was low. To cut down on the amount of paper, you could consid…
Can the ASQ questionnaires be administered through ASQ Online when not connected to wifi or mobile data? For example, if a home visitor was taking a tablet to a rural area without internet access, is there an app that allows for offline administration?
To use ASQ Online, the computer or mobile device must be connected to the internet. Offline administration is not possible at this time. In the situation you describe, the home visitor would need to bring a paper copy of the ASQ to complete and then enter the data into ASQ Online when they returned to the office.
My program has run into inconsistencies in medical records about how premature a child is. For example, the birth record says the child was born at 35 weeks, but the pediatrician's notes say the child was born at 38 weeks gestation. How should we adjust the child's age for prematurity in instances like this?
In cases such as these, we recommend averaging the two dates and using the average to determine the child's adjusted age. In many cases, the difference may not affect the questionnaire interval used.
Should a program use the ASQ-3 Materials Kit for screenings rather than the items in a child's home or child care center?
No, using the items in a child's home or child care environment is preferable in many ways. Children typically respond best to items they are already familiar with, such as items from their home. It is also important that toys and materials be relevant to the child's cultural practices. However, many home visiting…
Where do I indicate that the child is premature on the ASQ-3 Summary report?
To indicate that a child was born prematurely, you would simply bubble in “Yes” for the statement “Was age adjusted for prematurity when selecting questionnaire?” This is located in the top portion of the ASQ-3 Information Summary sheet.
When screening a child at 30 months, the parent reported many concerns, such as inability to understand when he talks, not liking to be held, only liking certain foods, and difficulty with transitions. The parent is concerned about possible autism, but the child's ASQ-3 scores are in the monitoring zone, not below the cutoff. What should I do?
In this situation, the ASQ developers would recommend that the child be referred for further evaluation based on the parents concerns, as well as scores close to the cutoff.
The ASQ-3 User's Guide says to calculate an adjusted age when a child is born "3 or more weeks" premature. The 2nd edition of ASQ said to adjust age when a child is born "more than 3 weeks" premature. Was this an intentional change?
The developers made the change in how prematurity is defined between editions in an attempt to make determing prematurity and calculating age easier for users to understand and implement. If your program has regularly used the "more than 3 weeks" prematurity guideline from the 2nd edition, you may continue to do so a…
