title: Predictive validity of the Italian parental questionnaire for developmental evaluation at age 4 (QS4-G).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine whether the results at 4 years of age of the developmental questionnaire QS4-G can predict the outcome of cognitive, neuropsychological and academic abilities 4-6 years later. The QS4-G is a validated parental questionnaire designed for the screening and surveillance of the neuropsychological and behavioural developmental status of 4-year-olds (93 questions).
  
  
  METHODS
  Longitudinal prospective study on a subsample of the QS4-G validation original sample was conducted. According to previous results, the sample was divided into two groups: 'at risk' and 'not at risk'. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and likelihood ratios were assessed and referred to outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-five children were classified as 'not at risk' and 16 as 'at risk'. There were significant associations between past QS4-G score and cognitive, neuropsychological and academic abilities 4-6 years later. With the same cut-off identified at the first cross-sectional study, sensitivity and specificity for difficulties in cognitive development were 90% and 83% while in the neuropsychological abilities 62% and 90%, respectively. A lower predictive validity was found for difficulties in academic abilities (sensitivity 43%, specificity 86%). QS4-G specific area scores showed significant correlations with related academic tests at follow-up (rho range: 0.404-0.565, P < 0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  QS4-G shows good predictive validity for cognitive development and neuropsychological abilities. The risk of false negatives for academic abilities can be reduced by analysing the specific area results of QS4-G, which show good correlations with related tests at follow-up.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Clinical Psychology, Department of Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital - IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bevilacqua
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Giannantoni
authors.affiliation: Service of Medical Statistics and Information Technology, Fatebenefratelli Foundation for Health Research and Education, AFaR Division, Rome, Italy.|Language and Communication Across Modalities Laboratory (LACAM), Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Patrizio
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pasqualetti
authors.affiliation: Unit of Epidemiology, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital - IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: di Ciommo
authors.affiliation: Unit of Clinical Psychology, Department of Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital - IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Franca
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Coletti
authors.affiliation: Unit of Epidemiology, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital - IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Lucilla
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ravà
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Cristina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Caselli
authors.affiliation: Unit of Clinical Psychology, Department of Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital - IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Dall'Oglio
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: neuropsychological development; parental questionnaire; predictive validity