Strategy

Survey for the Well-Being of Young Children Part of the Developmental and Behavioral Screening Strategy

What is it?

The Survey for the Well-Being of Young Children (SWYC) is a screening tool typically completed by parents during pediatric visits for children under five and a half years of age. The SWYC consists of several different scales that measure motor, language, social, cognitive, and social-emotional development. The questionnaires assess three domains: developmental, emotional/behavioral, and family context. There are five parts to the SWYC including the Developmental Milestones checklist, Parent’s Observations of Social Interactions (POSI), Baby Pediatric Symptom Checklist (BPSC), Preschool Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PPSC), parent’s concerns, and family questions.  The SWYC takes 15 minutes to complete. 

What is the evidence base?

SWYC results predict the performance on early literacy examinations in kindergarten, demonstrating that identifying children who need intervention before kindergarten can improve school readiness. The BPSC, the PPSC, and the POSI demonstrate moderate to strong internal consistency reliability. The POSI has acceptable sensitivity in identifying the risk for autism in children at least to age 48 months. The Developmental Milestones checklist, the BPSC, and the PPSC are moderately accurate at correctly identifying children at risk for developmental delays and low to moderate accuracy at identifying children who are not at risk for delays. 

• Schlichting et al_2022_From Descriptive to Predictive: Linking Early Childhood Developmental and Behavioral Screening Results With Educational Outcomes in Kindergarten
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services_2014_Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive! A Compendium of Screening Measures for Young Children 
• Salisbury et al_2018_Sensitivity and Specificity of 2 Autism Screeners Among Referred Children Between 16 and 48 Months of Age