Almost all preschool screening programs depend entirely on information and observations obtained during a brief evaluative session with the child. However, the logistics involved in managing large numbers of parents and children, the use of volunteers having varying degrees of sophistication or competency in assessment, the reliability and validity of such data, and the time and cost required for such approaches suggest that adjuncts or alternatives to such direct testing programs should be explored. In this paper, the potential usefulness of parent reports in preschool screening as an alternative or supplement to direct examinations of children is examined through a review of 7 research studies encompassing 1,413 children and using both subjective and objective outcome criteria. Overall, the data strongly support the use of parent questionnaires as a means of obtaining useful and economical information about the potential difficulty a pre-kindergarten child may have during the primary school years. (Author/MP)