Skip To Main Content

Your Child's Milestones

First page of the PDF file: CDC_Act_Early_Milestones
CDC Act Early Milestones

What is the DIAL?

The DIAL (Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning) is not a test for preschool entry.  This is an assessment of readiness for your child that helps us when doing class assignments. The DIAL screening is the same assessment used before students enter kindergarten.  This is not a pass/fail test.  The follow components make up the DIAL score:

Motor Area: Gross Motor items include throwing, hopping, and skipping. Fine Motor items include building with blocks, cutting, copying shapes and letters, writing, and finger-touching tasks.

Concepts Area: Items include pointing to named body parts, naming or identifying colors, counting, identifying concepts in pictures, and sorting shapes.

Language Area: Items include answering simple personal questions (name, age, and sex), articulation, naming (expressive) or identifying (receptive) objects and actions, plus phonemic awareness tasks such as rhyming and “I Spy.”

Self-Help Development: Looks at the child’s development of personal care skills related to dressing, eating, and grooming.

Social-Emotional Development: Looks at the child’s development of social skills with other children and parents, including rule compliance, sharing, self-control, and empathy.