Developmental-Behavioral Screening and Surveillance - Developmental-Behavioral Surveillance

Developmental-Behavioral Surveillance

Surveillance is the longitudinal process of getting “the big picture” of children’s lives and intervening in potential problems preferably before they develop. Surveillance includes eliciting and addressing parents’ concerns, and monitoring and addressing psychosocial risk factors that may deter development (e.g., limited parental education, more than 3 children in the home, single parenting, poverty, parental depression or other mental health problems, problematic parenting style such as not talking much with children, reading to them, etc.).

Surveillance involves the periodic use of broad-band developmental-behavioral screens but typically other kinds of measures are also deployed (preferably with quality tools enjoying psychometric support). Surveillance measures include tools eliciting and addressing parents’ concerns, measures of psychosocial risk, parenting style, autism spectrum disorder, mental health, etc. Some available measures offer both surveillance and screening via longitudinal tracking forms for monitoring issues and progress. A combination of surveillance and screening is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics in their July 2006 policy statement.