Communicating school health screening results to parents and children

Conducting a screening program is one thing, communicating the results to individuals is another altogether. We believe effective communication to be the nexus of health decision-making. How you convey screening choices and results to parents, teachers, and children may have both positive and negative consequences to parental and teacher perceptions of the child's behavior, expectations of his/her future development, and the child's view of themselves. In this chapter, we address the challenges and necessity of informed consent, the importance of understanding the implications of false positive and false negative results, and the potential consequences of communicating screening results. We also discuss what should be communicated and how it should be communicated and provide some practical suggestions about possible formats and strategies for conveying complex statistical information.