title: The reliability and validity of the Greenspan Social Emotional Growth Chart (GSEGC) in Israeli children with developmental delay and autism-A pilot study.
abstract: Healthy social-emotional development in early childhood is important as an indicator of general well-being and for positive outcome in later childhood. Therefore, screening for potential social emotional problems is valuable. Accurate, usable, and affordable screening tools have been especially difficult to develop. The cross cultural validity of a screening instrument should be assessed. The aim of the current study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Greenspan social-emotional growth chart (GSEGC) in Israeli children of three diagnostic groups: (1) Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) (2) Developmental language disorder (DLD) and (3) Developmental motor delay (DMD). An internal reliability of alpha of 0.95 for the GSEGC standardized for age score and of 0.78 for the sensory processing sub scores was found. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using a 5-factor model confirmed an acceptable fit. Positive (62.86%) and negative (94.73%) predictive values also support the clinical usefulness of the GSEGC in identifying children at low risk for ASD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The GSEGC appears to be a promising tool for the screening of social emotional problems in early childhood. Further studies in different cultures are warranted.
authors.affiliation: The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Electronic address: Zomat246@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Zoma
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tede
authors.affiliation: The Hanna Khoushy Child Development Center, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ophir Cohen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Arieh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Riskin
authors.affiliation: The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; The Hanna Khoushy Child Development Center, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Emanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tirosh
mesh_terms: D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Developmental delay; Greenspan Social–Emotional Growth Chart (GSEGC); Reliability; Validity