CRAFFT Screening Tool
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all teens be screened for tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use with a formal screening test at every well child visit. The CRAFFT Screening Tool is an easy one that pediatricians can use, with just six screening questions about high risk alcohol and other drug use disorders.
The CRAFFT Screen, available from the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research (CeASAR) at Children's Hospital Boston, first asks if the teen has drank any alcohol, smoke marijuana, or used anything else to get high in the past 12 months.
Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale
The 10-question Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale is an easy to to screen for postpartum depression. Be sure to also get the scoring instructions, as questions without an asterisk are scored differently (scored 0,1,2,3 top to bottom) from those with an asterisk (reverse scored 3,2,1,0 top to bottom).
With a maximum score of 30, mothers are likely depressed if they score 10 or greater on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.
Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers
M-CHAT or Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers is one of the primary screening tests that pediatricians use when they screen children for autism when they are 18 and 24 months old per current recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
This 23-item questionnaire is easy to use and score, which makes it popular with pediatricians and parents. The M-CHAT Follow-up Interview is also available for those children who score less than 10 to decrease the rate of false positive results.
TB Risk Assessment Tool
Now that universal screening for all children is no longer recommended, it is important to recognize high-risk factors for tuberculosis. This TB risk assessment tool from the CDC is a handy form that you can use to screen children who might need to be screened with a TB test.Ages & Stages Questionnaires
The Ages & Stages Questionnaires, including ASQ-3 and ASQ:SE, are developmental screening tools that can be given to parents to fill out at their young child's well child checkups. The ASQ-3 screens children from 1 to 66 months and includes 21 separate age-specific screening questionnaires to help identify general developmental delays.
The ASQ:SE can be used with the ASQ-3 screening forms to do a more in-depth evaluation of a child's social-emotional development. It includes 8 separate age-specific screening questionnaires.
