Screening Questionnaire for Children

Children ages 5 and up often exhibit behavior problems, deficient attention span, failure to thrive, as well as sleep disordered breathing.

With this in mind, it is important to encourage parents to seek diagnosis and begin treatment for children before the condition affects not only their craniofacial development but also their overall health and their day-to-day life including:

  • Focus and attention diminish
  • Vigilance – the ability to remain awake, alert, and attentive – is hampered
  • Receiving information becomes more difficult
  • Overload occurs – Over-worked neurons no longer function properly to coordinate information
  • Decision-making ability declines because they have difficulty assessing and interpreting situations
  • Planning becomes difficult
  • Judgment is impaired
  • Performance is affected because neurons do not fire optimally and muscles are not rested
  • Internal synchronization is hampered – The body’s organ systems are not synchronized
  • Focus diminishes – Lapses of focus and daytime sleepiness can lead to accident or injury
  • Hyperactivity (ADD/ADHD)
  • Delays in Development
  • Reduced Scholastic Performance
  • Loss of Interest in Learning 
  • Restless Sleep
  • Mood Swings
  • Speech and Language Impairment
  • Dimished Abstract Thinking Skills
  • Poor Problem Solving Skills
  • Aggressive behavior

In our practice, we use a special screening questionnaire for children and we have listed some of the most pertinent questions below:

While sleeping, does your child:

  • Snore ?
  • Exhibit “heavy” breathing or loud breathing ?
  • Appear to struggle to breathe ?

Does your child:

  • Tend to breathe through the mouth ?
  • Have dry mouth on waking up in the morning ?
  • Exhibit morning headaches ?
  • Sometimes wet the bed ?
  • Wake up tired and feeling unrefreshed in the morning ?
  • Appear to be sleepy during the day ?
  • Appear to be easily distracted ?
  • Have problem with tasks or school performance ?

Airway issues, in turn, can wreak havoc on learning and academics, behaviors and mood, attention and memory, abstract thinking, problem solving, and speech and language— secondary to reduced oxygen to the brain.