All About Social-Emotional Screening

ALL ABOUT

Social-emotional development is a child’s ability to experience, express, and manage emotions; develop positive relationships with caregivers and others; and explore their environment with curiosity and confidence.

Social-emotional screening is an applied method for detecting and monitoring signals that indicate whether a young child may be delayed in aspects of social-emotional development, such as communication, autonomy, affect, and interaction with people.
Developmental delays, learning disorders, and behavioral and social-emotional problems are estimated to affect 1 in every 6 children.
An estimated 13% of all children living in the United States have an emotional or behavioral disorder.
Only 20% to 30% of these children are identified as needing help before school begins.

If social-emotional problems are identified and addressed early, children are more likely to experience better outcomes in the areas of education, employment, criminal activity, substance use, and mental health.
Surveillance: The monitoring or tracking of children’s developmental progress over time.
Referral: The action taken by screening personnel to connect families with the appropriate service for their child.