A roomful of adorable testing took place at Discovery Learning Center last week, where preschoolers put on their thinking caps to rapidly identify objects, colors and body parts.

Most of the 3- to 5-year-olds knocked it out of the park when asked to stack seven differently colored small blocks. But a harder question about what number comes before 17 stymied many of the youngsters. One little boy in a ball cap gave his best effort to figure out the number 16 by focusing intensely on counting his fingers.

The enthusiastic preschoolers found it easy to identify body parts such as chin, stomach and shoulder, but pointing to their ankle was a bit tricky.

These ongoing developmental assessments conducted by specialized Steamboat Springs School District staff are part of cooperative efforts led by Routt County’s Early Childhood Council, said Meg Franges, executive director at First Impressions of Routt County.

The staff uses the DIAL-4 assessment, or Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning, including testing for rapid naming, word articulation and movement such as hopping and skipping. Other staff also tested the children’s hearing and vision, while team members from the Northwest Colorado Health school-based program provided short dental exams.

Franges said the community testing in child care centers assists parents, teachers and pediatricians who do not have the time to conduct such in-depth developmental testing.

“As the Early Childhood Council, we do this to support our child care providers in our community to make sure that no kiddos slip through the cracks,” Franges said. “Additionally, it’s just best practice to screen children between ages 3 to 5. It also allows for the participating centers to increase their quality rating, which could help them access additional grant funding.”

Last school year, the council coordinated 163 childhood screenings that resulted in referrals to specialized services including nine for vision, 11 for hearing, 21 for dental care and 17 for further evaluation by special education professionals.

“For Steamboat, we recognize that many families rely on full-time child care to support their work schedules, making it difficult to leave for appointments,” Franges said. “To better meet families’ needs, we’ve decided to bring screenings directly to child care centers, essentially taking this on the road.”

The most commonly identified concern during the testing is speech delays, particularly in articulation, Franges said.

“By catching it early and accessing speech therapy services … it can be corrected pretty quickly, and then kiddos may not need services later on,” Franges noted.

The evaluation results are shared with families and teachers, and the screening report sent to parents can include some recommended at-home activities.

“That’s part of why we do this too is for parent education,” Franges said. “Parents have so much on their plates now that even just knowing that everything is OK is helpful for a family.”

This is the second year that First Impressions is offering the screenings in partnership with the school district’s Child Find Team and Northwest Colorado Health to screen children for visual, audio, speech, dental and developmental health issues.

“It’s nice for teachers to know so that they can have a better snapshot of the kiddos who are in their care and how they might be able to help them,” Franges said.

Families living within the Steamboat Springs School District whose children are not in a child care or preschool program where testing is taking place can sign up for a screening at Firstimpressionsrouttcounty.org/community-developmental-screenings. The development assessments for children ages 3-5 will be available March 26 at the Routt County Department of Human Services, 135 Sixth St. in downtown Steamboat. Families in the Hayden and South Routt school districts can contact their district offices.

Hannah Gooding, preschool family liaison at Steamboat Montessori, said the free, efficient, developmentally appropriate process for multiple screenings conducted for 40 preschoolers within a few hours during a school day is “really beneficial and a huge community asset.”

“Early intervention is always the best-case scenario in terms of outcomes,” Gooding said. “There are instances where things slip through the cracks.”

Gooding said “children learn how to compensate really well” for vision and hearing deficiencies, so family members may not notice. Parents also may become accustomed to understanding their children’s speech patterns, so they may not recognize speech delays.

In addition to flagging issues early, the screenings can help parents learn if a developmental delay is normal for that age of child and thus relieve worries or concerns.  

“It allows parents to have peace of mind,” Gooding said.