title: The usefulness of the Battelle Developmental Inventory Screening Test.
abstract: Recent research supporting the effectiveness of early intervention and laws expanding services have increased the demand for accurate developmental screening tests. The Battelle Developmental Inventory Screening Test (BDIST), for children 6 months to 8 years old, has a number of desirable features, including subtests for fine and gross motor, adaptive, personal-social, receptive and expressive language, and cognitive skills; a range cutoff and age-equivalent scores; and national standardization. To assess its accuracy, the BDIST was administered to 104 children 7 to 83 months old, along with several other screening tests and a battery of criterion measures. Tied to 1.5 standard deviations below the mean, BDIST failing scores were moderately sensitive, detecting 75% of the children with developmental problems, such as mental retardation, borderline intelligence, language delays, and learning disabilities. Since 73% of the nonhandicapped children passed the BDIST, the test showed moderate specificity. Children within one month of their birthdays were likely to be over- or underreferred. Although the BDIST needs further research, it is a promising developmental screening instrument. The Receptive Language (RL) subtest, slightly more sensitive than the total BDIST but less specific, takes only a few minutes and thus is useful for prescreening in time-limited settings, such as pediatric practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37232.
authors.forename: F P
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Glascoe
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Byrne
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000592:standards; D011594:Psychometrics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity