Ages and Stages Questionnaire

1970s Dr. Diane Bricker from the University of Oregon heeds the call to design economical, valid and culturally sensitive screening tools for young children at risk for developmental delays. She handpicks a team of fellow University researchers to join her quest. 1979 A landmark study (Knobloch, 1979) reveals the opportunities that parent-completed reports could bring: lower costs and higher accuracy. 1980s – 1990s Dr. Bricker and Dr. Jane Squires perform deep industry research. Identify set of skills easily observed or elicited by parents and highly likely to occur in a home setting. A new breed of questionnaires is created, each specifically crafted for a different stage of development that asked parents simple questions about their child’s observable behaviors. Refinements and evolution of questionnaires per validity and utility data gleaned from its users (project staff, interventionists, parents, nurses, and pediatricians). 1995 Questionnaires first published by Brookes Publishing as the Ages & Stages Questionnaires® (ASQ®): A Parent-Completed, Child-Monitoring System. The tool had 8 questionnaire intervals ending at 48 months. Increasing demands for social-emotional screening spark the development for a companion tool to ASQ—Ages & Stages Questionnaires®: Social-Emotional (ASQ®:SE). Items in ASQ:SE are developed using multiple sources, such as standardized social-emotional and developmental assessments, textbooks and other resources in developmental and abnormal psychology, language and communication materials, and education and intervention resources.