Gesell Early Screener
What is the Gesell Early Screener?
The Gesell Early Screener (GES) assists parents, educators, and other professionals in quickly producing a snapshot of a 3 to 6 year old child’s development, compared to other children of the same age. The GES can be administered to a child by persons with varying levels of experience in less than 20 minutes.
The components of the GES include:
- GES online asynchronous workshop: available to support new Gesell examiners to learn how to administer and score the GES
- GES Examiner’s Manual: all instructions needed to administer the GES
- GES Child Recording Form (CRF-S): standardized sheet to track observations
- Sanctioned Gesell Manipulatives: official materials needed to administer the GES with validity
- Teacher Questionnaire and Parent/Guardian Questionnaire (paper or electronic)
- GES Strand Scoring Worksheet : auto-calculating worksheet to tally results
Purchase all GES materials here.
The Results of the GES
Results of the GES are recorded as a Performance Level Rating across four domains of Development.
- Performance Level Rating: A child’s abilities are defined as Age Appropriate, Emerging, or Concern
- Domains of Development: Cognitive, Language, Motor, and Social-Emotional Developmental and Adaptive Skills.
Unlike the Gesell Developmental Observation-Revised (GDO-R) the GES does not assign a Developmental Age. To better understand this and other differences between the GDO-R and the GES, to assist you in making an informed decision, we suggest viewing this short video.
Training to Become a GES Examiner
No training is mandated to administer the GES (unlike the GDO-R). A manual is included in your GES kit purchase and can be followed by individuals with experience using the GDO-R as well as by some child development or education professionals.
However, Gesell strongly recommends that to be best prepared, GES examiners:
- Complete a brief online workshop to ensure they are adequately trained in valid administration and competent in analyzing results. View workshop details here.
- Complete a Foundations of Child Development recorded webinar. View workshop details here.
- Adhere to assessment best practice, as summarized here.
Private Group Workshops: Private online training is available for school groups interested in being further supported in the art of administration and science of analysis of the GES. To inquire about or to schedule a private online GES workshop, please fill out the online form here, indicating "Private Online GES Workshop" and we will contact you.