The Development DetectorTM can be used to examine a child’s abilities to determine if professional consultation might be appropriate. It can also be used to ‘put your finger on’ the issues of concern to aid discussion with others, such as your husband/wife, the children’s carers or grandparents. This screening tool can also be a useful structure to discuss a child’s progress in a parent/teacher interview.
Which Development DetectorTM should I use?
Chose the area of concern you have as indicated below (so that you choose between the disciplines of Occupational Therapy and
Speech Pathology - Physiotherapy and Psychology coming in August 2011). Then chose the Development DetectorTM that is
appropriate to your child’s age.
Choose Occupational Therapy: For concerns about physical skills, be they fiddly fingers skills (drawing, writing, cutting, shoelaces,
buttons), whole body skills (running, jumping, coordination, endurance); attention, learning and behaviour
(sensory processing/integration), ‘life skills’ (dressing, eating, sleeping), being organized and able to plan and sequence tasks.
Choose Speech Pathology: For concerns about language skills, be they spoken (verbal, articulation), heard (understanding
instructions/conversations), written (spelling, story writing) or read (reading, sounding out words, recognizing previously
encountered words).
If your child’s age falls outside the Development DetectorTM range, then skills at their age are either too varied or too complex to
screen using such a simple tool. In this case, calling Kid Sense Child Development on 1300 66 00 67 to discuss your child
with a therapist is recommended.
How do you take the Development DetectorTM?
Simply chose the areas of concern by choosing the appropriate developmental discipline.
If you are not sure, read the home page of each discipline in order to see which developmental therapy area is most appropriate to your child’s areas of concern.
Then simply
- Click on the discipline you feel is most relevant to your child
- Choose the age range most appropriate to your child
- Answer the questions by clicking Yes or No
- Click on the ‘Submit’ button to reveal the visual feedback about your child’s performance
- Click print if you wish to print this out to aid discussion with parents/teachers/allied health professional
What if the Development DetectorTM does not show your concerns?
If you suspect a developmental concern that was not detected by Development DetectorTM , either use this website to explore more information or call Kid Sense Child Development on 1300 66 00 67 to discuss your results further with one of our Therapy team.
To get started, please select the discipline and age range below:
Occupational Therapy
Speech Pathology
Physiotherapy