Screenings

Childhood screening windows, birth to 18

When each check matters, why, and what missing the window costs. These windows exist whether or not anyone reminds you.

No account · no tracking of what you’ve done

  • Birth

    before discharge

    Newborn hearing screen

    Why: language is built on hearing in the first months. If missed: undetected loss delays speech before anyone notices — the 1-3-6 rule (screen by 1 mo, diagnose by 3, intervene by 6) exists because late starts are hard to make up.

    EHDI / AAP · universal newborn screening

  • 9–30 mo

    3 checkpoints

    Developmental screening (9, 18, 30 mo) + autism-specific at 18 & 24 mo

    Why: intervention works best before 3, while the brain is most plastic. If missed: the average autism diagnosis in the US still lands past age 4 — years after signs were visible at 18 mo.

    AAP periodicity schedule · M-CHAT-R at 18/24 mo

  • 3–5 y

    yearly

    Vision — visual acuity from age 3–4

    Why: amblyopia (“lazy eye”) is largely reversible while the visual brain is still wiring — mostly before ~7. If missed: after the window, glasses correct the eye but not the brain; the lost acuity is permanent. A child never reports blur — she thinks everyone sees this way.

    AAP / USPSTF · acuity screening from 3 y

  • 3 y +

    yearly at visits

    Blood pressure

    Why: pediatric hypertension is silent and rising with obesity. If missed: years of unnoticed elevation show up later as organ strain that was preventable.

    AAP · annual BP from 3 y

  • 4–6 y

    window

    Hearing — pure-tone audiometry becomes reliable

    Why: mild loss that passed the newborn screen surfaces here. If missed: it reads as “doesn’t listen” or “doesn’t pay attention” in kindergarten.

    AAP · audiometry at 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 y

  • 10–15 y

    growth spurt

    Scoliosis — during the pubertal growth spurt

    Why: curves progress fastest exactly when growth is fastest; bracing works only while growing. If missed: a curve found after the spurt may already be past the bracing window — surgery becomes the remaining option.

    SRS/AAOS · girls ~10 & 12, boys ~13–14

These windows come from published paediatric guidance, cited on each row — not computed from a bundled reference table the way the percentiles are.