Our Mission
At NEST, we believe every child deserves a strong start, no matter their circumstances. Our mission is to provide caregivers and community organizations with an accessible tool to assess early childhood development, reduce risk factors, and promote resilience, giving children the best chance for a bright future.
What is NEST?
An instrument to screen children’s development that can be administered by nonclinical staff in low-resourced settings
NEST – or the Neurodevelopmental Ecological Screening Tool- is a web-based platform originally created for use with children ages 3-5 in low-resource settings in the United States.
The exclusive NEST algorithm looks at the relationships across three domains – child neurodevelopmental functioning, caregiver mental health and parenting style, and environmental influences – to identify a child’s true level of risk based on their family and social ecology.
Designed to function as a scientifically grounded, clinical decision-making tool, NEST generates evidenced-based recommendations in real time. This allows for brief interventions and, when appropriate, referrals that specially target the identified risk factors.
As a validated commercial measurement tool in the U.S., it enables professional and paraprofessional staff alike to quickly identify young children’s level of developmental risk, substantially increasing the human resource network available to effectively screen children and families in low-resource settings.
Voices of Success
Client Testimonials
Building Brighter Futures
Use of standardized screening reduces bias, improves accuracy,
and helps us to make better informed decisions. Providers need the right tools to best support Children. NEST is here to support you in identifying children who may be at-risk and in targeting services for better outcomes.
Help us reach more communities by sharing NEST with local service providers, early childhood centers, and families in need. Together, we can make a difference in young lives and empower children to reach their fullest potential.
