School provides free screenings early for kids

FAIRMONT - To ensure kids are ready for school, Fairmont Area Schools is providing free early childhood screenings, with a large-scale event planned for MEA break from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Oct. 13 and 14.

Early childhood screenings are required for any children entering public school. Fairmont School Nurse April Tordsen said they screen for height and weight, immunizations, language and communication skills, speech, social and emotional development, hearing, vision and motor skills.

"It’s a free and simple check that you can see how your child is growing, developing and learning," she said.

While the ideal age to be screened is 3 to 4, Tordsen said they have extended it in the last few years to do screening for first-grade-aged kids as well.

"Just since COVID times, and kids were missing some of that schooling and missing some of those early childhood screenings during that time," she said. "I think we’re just trying to catch up and make sure that we’ve caught all the kids."

So far, Tordsen said she has seen this approach be successful in catching up. While the gold standard for testing kids’ skills and abilities has stayed the same, Tordsen said they’ve added a newer piece of tech to help test vision.

"The spot screener is a newer instrument that they’re using," she said. "Probably the biggest benefit is children don’t really have to participate at all. It just is a quick camera-like device that takes a quick look at their eyes, and they get readings off of that picture. The eye chart would be your gold standard for sure that you would do, but the spot screener is a great thing to have also."

There are a wide range of issues that can be caught through these screenings.

"Students needing hearing aids, students needing glasses," Tordsen said. "If immunizations are not up to date, maybe parents aren’t aware, that type of thing. If there’s maybe some speech impediment or some speech, language, cognitive concerns. If there’s any type of small motor, from writing to cutting to stacking blocks."

During these big MEA break October screenings, they can have around 100 kids come in. They also offer them monthly afterward, and those draw around eight to 10 kids.

While there are up and down years, the program has stayed fairly steady over the past five years.

"I think the school does a good job of trying to find the students that are in those age ranges that need to be screened," Tordsen said. "Sometimes too, we can miss kids if they’re not on certain registries and that type of thing. We hope that other community schools, other preschools, Head Start, if kids need screening, they would reach out to the school or let parents know, so parents can call and schedule that."

By providing this at no cost, it can put the importance of intervention itself first.

"Early intervention can be put in place if students are not reaching the standard of some of these developmental skills," Tordsen said. "We sit down as a team with more of the professionals, like a speech pathologist, school psychologist, special education department, that type of thing. We’ll kind of review this and if there’s concerns, they will reach out to the family. Those specific entities will be able to put into place the education and the interventions that are needed for those kids to be successful."

Pre-registration is needed due to demand and availability. To do so, call the Fairmont Elementary School office at 507-238-4487.