Evaluation of the Early Screening Project in a Head Start classroom-wide mental health identification and intervention over a 12- week period found that eight children identified as being at high risk for emotional/behavioral disorders prior to intervention either significantly improved or maintained their pre-intervention functioning. No…

A study involving 335 normally achieving children and 88 children with learning disabilities or mild mental retardation attending prekindergarten or kindergarten found that three of ten tasks of a cognitive screening test provided the best classification: semantic information/visual, semantic information/verbal, and rhyming tasks (prekindergarten)…

Evaluated special needs referral system in an urban Head Start program. The Early Intervention Screening Profile completed by independent raters revealed that, in the first assessment, all referred children had speech/language problems, some also showing emotional or behavioral problems. Teacher-completed EISPs with a second sample identified over…

Notes that articulating existence and cause of referral biases is critical to more effective preschool services. Maintains that until high child poverty, exposure to violence, and shortage of safe and stimulating environments are addressed, escalating rates of serious child emotional/behavioral problems will continue. Asserts that we must question…

An article by Ellie Ashford condensed from School Board News (Jun 28, 2005) is presented in this article. Proponents of mental health screening point to stories to illustrate the benefits of screening seemingly healthy teenagers. Yet, opposition to mental health screening is growing, with one school health expert calling it "as controversial…

This study compares two instruments frequently used to assess risk for violence, the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) and the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), in a large sample of civil psychiatric patients. Despite a strong bivariate relationship with community violence, the VRAG could not improve on the predictive validity…

Background: WILSTAAR comprises a programme for identifying and treating 8-10-month-old infants who are at risk of language and cognitive difficulties. It has been adopted by health trusts, and included in Sure Start intervention schemes, throughout the UK. This study addresses one of the main queries raised by critics of the programme, by…

The term "pilot study" has been used over the years to describe the evaluation of the many elements involved in deciding whether a proposed condition should be added to a newborn screening (NBS) panel, and until recently, was unilaterally used to describe the evaluation of the assay to be used before the condition was officially adopted by a state…

The present paper reviews the methods available for neurological or neuromotor evaluation at preschool age. General textbooks on pediatric neurology describe the neurological examination at preschool age in terms of the assessment of the evaluation of cranial nerves, muscle tone, muscle power, reflexes, and the presence of abnormal movements. They…

Screening measures to identify very young children at risk for autism spectrum disorders include the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) and the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). To examine the validity of these written questionnaires, parents completed them prior to their child's diagnostic assessment at a tertiary autism…

Children's successful adjustment to child care involves effectively managing their separation from parents. Persistent problems with separation interfere with other relationships and with learning opportunities. The authors of this article developed a tool that caregivers can use to identify adjustment difficulties in young children who are …

This article presents results related to the impact on educational support services of the introduction of the first phase of the national Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP) in England. This study was funded by the Department of Health and undertaken as one element of a national evaluation of NHSP across a range of domains. It presents…

Few studies have investigated community clinic-based interventions to promote mammography screening among rural African American women. This study randomized older low-income rural African American women who had not participated in screening in the previous 2 years to a theory-based, personalized letter or usual care; no group differences in…

Background: This study assessed whether a Learning Disability Service should develop a specific autism strategy or provide services on a needs-led basis. Materials and methods: An autism screening questionnaire had been used to identify individuals scoring above a cut-off who had (n = 9) or had not (n = 15) received a formal diagnosis of autism. A…

There is great potential in public health and faith communities partnering to promote health education and research. This article describes lessons learned from the design and implementation of such a partnership, the Los Angeles Mammography Promotion in Churches Program (LAMP). It is feasible, although challenging, to enumerate and survey…