Screening for developmental and behavioral problems

Abstract

Early detection of developmental and behavioral/mental health problems is greatly facilitated when quality instruments are deployed. This article describes how to identify accurate measures and presents standards for screening tests. Included is a table delineating accurate tools for primary care: typically those relying on information from parents (e.g., PEDS, ASQ, PSC, etc.) as well as measures useful in settings where providers have more time and skill at eliciting behaviors from children (e.g., Brigance screens). Screening measures should be used in the context of developmental surveillance; the longitudinal process of incorporating professional observations into decision-making about children's developmental needs.

The Validity of the Child and Adolescent Intellectual Disability Screening Questionnaire (CAIDS-Q) with children aged 6–7 years, 11 months: A brief report

“…The CAIDS-Q was found to have good internal consistency, convergent and discriminative validity, with the latter illustrating both sensitivity and specificity of over 80%%, which exceed values considered to be acceptable for screening of 70-80% for sensitivity and80% for specificity (e.g. Glascoe 2005). While the CAIDS-Q was found to correlate significantly with IQ scores, the relationships and associated effect sizes were smaller than with the older participants with whom the CAIDS-Q was originally validated.…”

Evaluating the use of the Child and Adolescent Intellectual Disability Screening Questionnaire (CAIDS-Q) to estimate IQ in children with low intellectual ability

“…For example, many children aged six may have some difficulty with reading and writing, regardless of whether they have an intellectual disability or not because this is a new skill that is being learnt at school. Indeed, the CAIDS-Q, while being found to have sensitivity and specificity levels above the levels deemed to be acceptable for screening tools (Glascoe, 2005) and to correlate significantly with IQ in those age between 6 and 8, performed more poorly than with those aged 8 years and over . This would suggest that caution should be exercised when estimating the FSIQ of children under eight years old based on the CAIDS-Q total scores.…”

Developmental screening in context: adaptation and standardization of the Denver Developmental Screening Test‐II (DDST‐II) for Sri Lankan children

“…Children who do not manifest obvious socioemotional, behavioural or neurological dysfunctions in early childhood may remain undetected of their developmental disabilities until onset of schooling (Williams & Holmes 2004). Early detection and intervention through periodic screening during pre-school ages can alleviate developmental problems to a great extent and help children achieve their full potential in physical, behavioural and socio-emotional capacities (Glascoe 2005;Rydz et al 2005;Bayoglu et al 2007).…”