Screening & Early Intervention

If you or someone who cares about your child has a concern about their development, a referral can be made to DDRC’s Early Intervention team for an evaluation. Call 303-462-6619 or email eireferral@ddrcco.com. 

Although other people may refer a child to Early Intervention on behalf of your child (such as a health care provider), parents are always in control and must give permission for their child to receive an evaluation or to receive services. 

When DDRC receives a referral for Early Intervention, a Service Coordinator is assigned to your family and can work with you to schedule an evaluation for the child.

The evaluation looks at all five areas of a child’s development. The evaluation will help you know if your child could use some extra support or if they are right on track. Either way, families learn valuable information about their child and how best to support them. 

Information from the evaluation is used to determine whether the child is eligible to receive Early Intervention services.

The services that each child and family receive will depend on their needs and goals for the child’s development. Services available through Early Intervention Colorado include:

• Assistive technology services
• Audiology services
• Developmental intervention services
• Health services
• Medical services
• Nursing services
• Nutrition Services
• Occupational therapy services
• Physical therapy services
• Psychological services
• Sign language and cued language services
• Social and emotional services
• Speech-language pathology services
• Transportation services
• Vision services

Early Intervention serves babies and toddlers, birth to age three, and their families. 

A child may be eligible for Early Intervention due to a significant delay in one or more of these developmental areas:

• Adaptive development (taking care of self when doing things like feeding or dressing)
• Cognitive development (thinking and learning skills)
• Communication development (understanding and using sounds, gestures, and words)
• Physical development (moving, seeing, and hearing)
• Social-emotional development (responding to and developing relationships with other people)

A child may also be determined eligible because he or she has been diagnosed with a condition that will likely result in a significant delay in development. A list of diagnoses that will automatically qualify a child for the EI Colorado program is available here. 

(The list is located in the “Make a Referral” tab and it is called “Database of All Diagnosed Conditions.” If your child has a condition that establishes their eligibility, your child will still need an assessment to help plan for what services may be needed.)

A developmental screening is a way to quickly assess how a young child is developing in each area compared to other children of the same age. Many health care providers will ask parents to complete the screening survey before each well-child visit. 

Developmental screening is an important way that we monitor whether children are on track in each area of their growth and learning. 

If your child has not been screened, ask your health care provider or child care provider. They can provide you with a screening questionnaire for your child’s age. 

A screening can help determine if a child’s development or behaviors are typical or may need further evaluation. 

Most screenings are paper checklists that a parent fills out about their child. The ASQ (Ages and Stages Questionnaire) is a common screening tool that reviews physical and cognitive development. 

The ASQ-SE (Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional) focuses on the parts of a child’s development that have to do with how they relate to others, understand and manage their feelings.