Frequently Asked Questions

To deliver the Well Screening, you will need:

1. Broadband Internet access

2. One device (a computer or tablet) for the child to access the Well Screening

3. One device (a smart phone, tablet, or computer) for the adult to access the Scoring Form

The screening should be delivered in a quiet, distraction-free environment. Headphones with a splitter may be used by both the child and adult if extraneous noise is a concern. See the Technical section below, or the Technical Requirements on the Instruction page to learn more.

If you do not log out or leave the Well Screening Page, you may resume testing where you left off.

The Well Screening page should reappear when you power up your computer or return to the internet, and you may resume testing where you left off.

A Screening Code is good for one submission, so whoever submits the Scoring Form first owns those results for that student.

No. The norms are based on grade placement. You will need to change the DOB by editing the pdf of the results page.

The child's performance is compared to normative research and grade norms and placed into one of three categories: A Strength to Celebrate, On Track, or a Weakness to Bolster. A Weakness to Bolster may simply indicate that more exposure to a skill area(s) is needed. If the child performs below expectations on three or more subtests on the Well screening, enrichment in these areas should be initiated and further testing should be considered if there are concerns. See Sample Results.

The Well Screening® is an online screening tool, available at www.wellscreening.com, designed to identify prekindergarten and kindergarten children at risk for speech, language, and learning disorders. It is a unique and comprehensive screener that draws from the specialized fields of speech-language pathology, education, psychology, and child development.

The Well Screening can be administered by any educator, paraprofessional, or professional in a school or clinical setting. The optional Speech Sound Subtest should be completed by professionals skilled in this scope of practice.

The screener takes approximately 20 minutes for a child to complete.

The Well Screening can be administered three times a year in kindergarten: fall, winter, and spring. It can also be administered to prekindergarten students in the spring.

The Well Screening looks at the following aspects of child development: receptive language, expressive language, social communication, early literacy, reading, attention, math calculation, and speech sound production. See Chapter 3 of the Well Screening® Examiner’s Manual to learn more.

No. You will need to readminister the screening in full and submit the Scoring Form.

The child completes the screener with minimal supervision from an adult helper. Animated characters guide the child through the subtests, prompting responses accordingly. The adult follows along and enters the child’s oral responses into the Scoring Form. Please see Instruction Video.

Supported by more than 30 years of clinical experience, the Well Screening was normed during psychometric studies that have established the tool’s reliability and validity. Please see Chapter 8 of the Well Screening® Examiner’s Manual to learn more.

You can purchase the Well Screening Starter Kit, as well as Supplementary Screening Codes, from Brookes Publishing. You can buy online or call customer service at 1-800-638-3775 or 1-410-337-9580 (outside the U.S. and Canada). See the Purchase page for more information.

After purchasing the Starter Kit or Supplementary Screening Codes from Brookes Publishing, you will receive an email from info@bolsterlearning.com with your Well Screening codes. The email will have an attachment with your 25 screening codes (along with one free bonus code to allow you to practice screening) in a CSV (Excel) file. Please be sure to check your Spam folder for this email. If you do not receive your codes within 24 hours, please contact Brookes Publishing customer service (https://brookespublishing.com/customer-service/).

Have the child point to the computer screen and use the mouse yourself to click for the child.

Please encourage the child to make a selection. If the child refuses to respond after being encouraged, do not submit the Scoring Form and rescreen at a later date.

The Well Screening was normed through in-person administration, where the helper sat next to the child. However, for professionals who need to deliver screening via teleadministration, directions for remote administration are available on the web page. While the instructions are specific to Zoom, they can be adapted for use across web conferencing and telepractice platforms that have remote control functionality. See Zoom Instructions.

Often children are not reading when they enter kindergarten. Reading common sight words and sounding out words develop throughout the kindergarten year.

The adult helper follows along and enters the child’s oral responses as correct or incorrect into the Scoring Form on the adult’s device. After the screening is completed, the helper enters the Scoring Code from the child's device into the Scoring Form, completes the demographic information, and Submits the information. The child’s Learning Profile is immediately generated and available. To view the child's Learning Profile at a later date, log back into the website, enter the child's unique Scoring Code, and press the “View Results” button.

Next to each domain in the Learning Profile, you will see an icon indicating how the child performed in comparison to their same-age peers. The green icon with a smile indicates that the domain is a Strength to Celebrate. The yellow icon with a thumbs up indicates that the child is On Track in that domain. The red icon with an exclamation point indicates that the domain is a Weakness to Bolster. For any domain with a Weakness to Bolster icon, you should monitor the child’s progress and deliver enrichment in that domain. Click the “Next Steps” button next to each domain to see activities, games, and other resources to support such enrichment. See Sample Results.

If a child perfrorms in the Weakness to Bolster category on three or more subtests, further evaluation should be considered. Please see Chapter 6 of the Well Screening® Examiner’s Manual to learn more.

The Well Screening Learning Profile may be printed or downloaded locally as a PDF. Before emailing a report, be sure you are familiar with your school’s or program’s policies regarding sharing student information and the ways in which that information can be transmitted. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and other federal, state, or local regulations could be applicable, and you are responsible for knowing those policies and how to comply.

Psychometric information is reported in the Well Screening Administration Manual.

The child completes the screening using a computer (PC or Mac) or tablet. The child should view the screen in landscape or wide orientation. Do not allow the child to complete the screener using a smartphone. The screen is too small for reliable administration.

The adult must also have a device to input the child’s oral answers into the Scoring Form. This device can be a smart phone, tablet, or computer.

If the child or adult is using a desktop or laptop computer, it must have speakers, JavaScript enabled, and use one of the approved operating systems (see the next question or the Technical Requirements on the Instruction page to learn more.

The following operating system and browsers can be used for the Well Screening:

Mac or Windows PC

Windows 10 or newer
Mac OS 10.13 or newer

Use one of the following Mac or PC browsers:
Chrome 73 or newer
Safari 13 or newer
Firefox 66or newer
Edge

iPad or iPhone

iOS 13 or newer with Safari browser

Android Device

Android 9.0 or newer with Chrome browser 73 or newer

Broadband Internet access is required to administer the Well Screening. We recommend an internet connection with at least 10–15 Mbps download speed and at least 5 Mbps upload speed is required. Need to check your internet speed at your screening location? You can check using a speed test found here: http://speedtest.xfinity.com or here: http://beta.speedtest.net.