Elaborating Screening Scales for Early Diagnosis of Developmental Delay in Five- to Six-Year-Old Children in Russia

Abstract

Background. It is known that the earlier a child is diagnosed with developmental delay (DD), the more promising his/her cognitive development can be. Various screenings are used worldwide for early detection of developmental problems. However, timely diagnosis of DD is not sufficiently carried out in Russia at present. Objective. Elaboration of screening scales to quickly monitor the mental development of five-to six-year-old Russian children was the objective of this study. The scales we developed involved the use of modern information technologies to obtain reliable results. Design. This study was carried out with a sample of 1,860 children. The formal procedure for multilateral monitoring of child development was used for data collection, involving a much more extensive set of tasks than in traditional tests of abilities; this allowed for a wider variation of the factor structure. For the fiveyear-olds, 349 tasks were used, and 292 for the six-year-olds. To construct scales for each age group (six-seven items in each), which would most accurately predict the diagnosis (Norm or DD), factor and discriminant analysis were carried out. To verify the prediction model, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. Results. As a result of the study, we developed scales which had similar types of variables for each age group (simpler for the five-year-olds and more complex for the six-year-olds). The common variables were logical reasoning, motor skills, and general awareness; two other scales were added for the six-year-olds: sustained attention and counting. According to the SEM, these scales are indicators of the general ability factor, and the latter one (general awareness) is the main predictor of the diagnosis. Conclusions. Short scales for rapid identification of DD in Russian preschoolers were constructed, which allow the use of computer technology to uncover the risk group among five-and six-year-olds in a timely fashion, and have high sensitivity and specificity of the forecast (not lower than 94%).