Lowering Developmental Screening Thresholds and Raising Quality Improvement for Preterm Children

Abstract

Combined referral, quality improvement and outcome data suggests that clinicians should lower their threshold for administering a psychometrically sound developmental screen when providing surveillance for ex-preemies. Quality improvement opportunities exist with diligent developmental surveillance and a more collaborative, standardized, reliable and interpersonal referral process.

Gestational Age and Developmental Risk in Moderately and Late Preterm and Early Term Infants

“…In accordance with our results, previous studies that used the ASQ to identify children at risk of developmental delay found greater developmental delay risk in LPT and MPT infants compared with term infants. 8,35 In our study, there was a significant linear inverse relationship between weeks of GA and risk of developmental delay. In addition, no significant improvements were found comparing that adjustment with quadratic or cubic fit.…”

Identification of social‐emotional problems among young children in foster care

“…Independent variables included key demographic variables that have been shown by other studies to be associated with results on the ASQ (Marks, Hix-Small, Clark, & Newman, 2009;Rydz et al, 2006). This included: race/ethnicity, gender, and age (infant = 4-12 months, toddler = 13-36 months, and preschooler = 37-61 months).…”

Validity of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires in Term and Preterm Infants

“…6 Many studies support its easy administration, short completion time, easy interpretation, and its capacity to dramatically enhance a clinician' s ability to detect children who have suspected developmental delays. [7][8][9][10][11] In addition, the ASQ performs well with children with biological risk factors [12][13][14][15][16] as well as those with environmental risk factors such as foster care placement. 17 As an additional benefit, these measures provide an excellent opportunity for discussing parental concerns regarding developmental issues in children, with the goal of improving communication and physician-parent relationships.…”

“…In most of those publications, it has been reported that the ASQ is accurate in detecting true problems in apparently healthy children and even in children with biological risk factors. [12][13][14]16 Recently, Simard et al 26 published a study that contrasted these previous findings by using the second edition of the ASQ compared with the subscales of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Second Edition. To the best of our knowledge, there are no reports comparing the third editions of these questionnaires.…”