Efficient developmental screening instrument for 6- and 18-month-old children in the Taiwan Birth Cohort Pilot Study.
OBJECTIVE
To develop an efficient developmental screening instrument for interview purposes.


METHODS
Using random sampling, two groups of babies were selected: The pilot group of 1747 babies was selected for testing of reliability and validity. Another group of 100 babies was selected for testing of the concurrent validity with the second edition of the Bayley Scale of Infant Development. The Taiwan Birth Cohort Study scales include four developmental dimensions: gross motor, fine motor, language/communication (language) and social/self-care ability (social).


RESULTS
In testing the concurrent validity, the structural equation model showed that Taiwan Birth Cohort Study dimensions correlated with the Bayley Scale of Infant Development dimensions. In testing the predictive validity of the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study, the correlation between the 6- and 18-month results of the motor index was 0.29, and the language social index was 0.31.


CONCLUSIONS
The Taiwan Birth Cohort Study 6- and 18-month scales fulfill the criteria of developmental norm, predictive validity, validity and identification of relative risk for screening instruments. As a self-report checklist, it is economical and efficient, thus, it can be utilized in clinical and community settings.
Lung
For-Wey
FW
Department of Medicine, Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital, and Graduate Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Shu
Bih-Ching
BC
Chiang
Tung-Liang
TL
Lin
Shio Jean
SJ
D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology