Healthy Kindy Kids information for parents
Free vision, hearing, and speech and language screening for children in Queensland kindergartens.
Free kindy health checks
If your child’s kindy has the approved kindy tick, they can get free vision, hearing, and speech and language screening at kindy. It’s called a Healthy Kindy Kids check.
If you want your child to have the health check, we'll:
- take a picture of their eyes using a screening device that’s a bit like a camera
- play a hearing game with them using headphones and a tablet
- play a language game with them using a tablet to see how they use words and sentences.
We do the check at kindy to make them more convenient for you and your child. If we identify any concerns, we can connect you and your child to the right advice and services. Our team are all trained screeners and either:
- have a blue card (Queensland's Working with Children Check)
- are registered members with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra).
Healthy Kindy Kids is gradually rolling out across Queensland and will be offered to every kindy by the end of 2027. The local Healthy Kindy Kids team will contact your child's kindy when the program is available in your area.
Before the Healthy Kindy Kids check
Your child's kindy will let you know a few weeks before we do the health checks, and will give you:
- a consent form to sign
- a parent and caregiver questionnaire to fill in
- information about the screenings.
If you or your child need an interpreter, we can organise one for free.
How we do each screening
You don't need to be at the screening, but you can if you’d like to. One of the educators at kindy will help your child through the activities. These will be built into their normal kindy day.
It's a quick and engaging way to check their vision, hearing, and speech and language development, but it won't give a detailed assessment or diagnosis.
If your child gets any refer results, we'll tell you how you can access services in your area. A refer result doesn't always mean there’s a problem, but it may be helpful to do more checks.
Vision screening
We'll take a picture of your child's eye, using a device that's a bit like a camera. It will take some measurements of your child's eyes to check for anything that’s out of the normal range their child's age.
The results will either be pass or refer. For refer results, we'll recommend taking your child to see an eye health professional (optometrist). Our team will provide you with information on how to access these services in your area.
Hearing screening
Your child will do the hearing screening on a digital tablet while wearing headphones. It's a fun game that checks their hearing in each ear.
You'll get a pass or refer result for each ear. For refer results, we'll recommend a second hearing screen at another time because sometimes:
- it's noisy in the room when we do the screening
- your child might have a blocked ear after a having cold or other illness.
The Healthy Kindy Kids team will provide you with information on where to get the second screen. If you get a refer result in either or both ears after the second screening, we’ll recommend seeing an ear health specialist (audiologist).
Language screening
The language screening is done on a digital tablet. It's designed to see how well your child understands and uses words, sentences and instructions.
The results will either be no concern or:
- provide advice – we'll give you and your kindy suggestions to help their language development
- refer - we'll recommend taking your child for further assessments and our team will give you information on where you can get these done.
Getting your child's results
You'll get a report of your child's results following the checks. If there's anything we're concerned about, we'll call you before we send the report.
We can talk to you about getting:
- further checks or screening
- support from your GP or other community health professionals
- referrals to specialist services.
It's important to remember that screening checks:
- are not always 100% accurate
- sometimes misses problem or may be a false alarm
- are a snapshot at one point in time — changes can happen after the screening.
If you're worried about your child's vision, hearing or speech and language at any time, talk to your GP or child and family health nurse.