Should you need urgent health advice please contact your GP or call NHS 111. In an emergency please visit A&E or call 999

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ASQs (Ages and Stages Questionnaires)

Your health visiting team will send you a questionnaire, known as the “Ages and Stages Questionnaire” or ASQ-3, to fill in before your child’s 9 to 12-month and 2-year development reviews.

Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQs) help you and our staff understand how your child is developing, they are just one of the tools we may use during our contact with you – but of course most important of all is what you tell us about your child.

The ASQs are not a measure of how well your child is or isn’t doing, as we know all children develop differently. They are something that we use together to talk about the things your child does easily, to think about any concerns you might have and how we can support you and your child with those.

They are split into 5 different areas:

  • Communication: Your child’s language skills, both what your child understands and what he or she can say – this can be sounds, babbling or talking.
  • Gross Motor: How your child uses their arms and legs for sitting, crawling, walking, running, and other activities.
  • Fine Motor: How your child uses their hands and fingers – for example scribbling or picking up food.
  • Problem Solving: How your child plays with toys and solves problems.
  • Personal-Social: Your child’s self-help skills and how they play and interact with others.

The ASQ that is used is based on the age of your child.

For each question, you’ll be asked to choose between ‘yes’, ‘sometimes’ and ‘not yet’, based on what your child is able to do at that point in time. We suggest you fill it in a few days before the appointment. To answer each question you can try fun and simple activities with your child. Each question focuses on activities that encourage your child to play, move around and practice day-to-day skills.

You will be sent the questionnaire before your appointment with us. Please bring the completed questionnaire to your appointment.

Read more about our face to face appointments.

ParentLine logo

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust runs a confidential secure text messaging service for parents of children aged 0-5 years called ParentLine. The service operates Monday to Friday between 9.30am and 4.30pm in Brighton & Hove and Monday to Friday between 9am to 4.30pm in West Sussex, excluding bank holidays. All texts will be responded to by a health visitor within 24 hours. Outside of the service working hours, you’ll receive a message back to inform you that your text will be responded to once the line reopens.

Should you require urgent health advice in the meantime, please contact your GP, visit an NHS walk-in centre or call NHS 111. For emergencies, dial 999 or visit A&E.

This page was last reviewed on 17-08-2023

This page will be next reviewed on 17-08-2026