– Alberta Government, 2013

The Alberta Resource Centre for Quality Enhancement (ARCQE) has been working to increase awareness and use of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ: 3) and Social-Emotional (ASQ: SE2) screening tools across Alberta.  ARCQE’s engagement with the sector relative to development screening now spans support to the following three areas 1. GRASP: Family Child Care agencies (FCC) 2. Parent Link Centres, (PLC) 3. Home Visitation programs (HV).

Currently ARCQE works in partnership with Children’s Services to assist PLC’s and HV’s with developmental screening.

 

The overarching aim of the GRASP project is to:

• Guide enhancement of environments as a means of optimizing children’s developmental potential.
• Support day home provider strategies focused on best practice relative to developmental outcomes.
• Provide access to formal coaching and on-site support and resources specific to use of ASQ tools.

For more information on Agency Consultants or Provider project learnings please see the following links:
Agency Consultants: https://create.piktochart.com/output/30866983-final-grasp_evaluation-learnings-for-consultants
Provider: https://create.piktochart.com/output/30787702-grasp_evaluation-learnings-for-providers

– Makovichuk, Hewes, Lirette, Thomas, 2014

Currently ARCQE works in partnership with Children’s Services to assist PLC’s and HV’s with developmental screening as follows:

• Coordinate training & refresher sessions on developmental screening tools
• Provide support & consultation and/or training to orient programs to use of ASQ on-line database
• Facilitate communities of practice and information sharing relative to developmental screening, supporting referrals and access to resource materials for both trainers & families.

For more information on Home Visitation or Parent Link Programs please see the following links:
Home Visitation:  https://www.ahvna.org/
PLC: https://www.alberta.ca/parent-link-centres.aspx

With province-wide support and focus on developmental screening, educators and practitioners are now engaged in critical reflection to support building relationship and strengthening communication strategies to inform and guide responsive follow up that may be beneficial to optimizing developmental outcomes.

As a means of supporting and informing evidence-based practice, use of ASQ in the PLC/HV and GRASP agencies looks to research that may be helpful in guiding communication about child development to share with families. Following is a series of helpful links as well as a broad array of resources that offer foundational knowledge about child development that may be helpful in supporting further dialogue between parents and educators. In turn, educators/practitioners and parents will then have increased awareness of children’s early developmental needs and effective strategies for effectively meeting them.