ASSESSMENT 1 Child Development Inventories Jacelyn Vital- McPherson & Antonio McMillian Houston Baptist University
2 Abstract This paper will discuss my research on the Child Development Inventories (CDI) assessment tool. This assessment tool provides a useful measure of children s development and by using parental reports, it offers an effective approach to developmental assessment for busy pediatricians. An advantage of using the CDI is it is a low cost screening, and is easily adapted in any environment.
3 Child Development Inventories The Child Development Inventories (CDI) is an assessment used to measure the present development of a child in eight areas: social, self-help, gross motor, fine motor, expressive language, language comprehension, letters, and numbers. The CDI assessment is the outcome of 30 years of examination and clinical experience with the Minnesota Child Development Inventory and related inventories created for a more constricted age group. It is a tool that parents can use to identify concerns about their child s health and growth, vision and hearing, development and behavior. The CDI is administered by parents on children from 15 months to 5 years; and for older children who have been evaluated to be functioning in this range. It also measures parents' concerns about the child's vision and hearing, health, and growth as well as development. The CDI is available in English and Spanish and is written at 7th-8th grade level. The assessment is a 300 item booklet and an answer sheet that takes about 30 to 50 minutes to complete, and 10 minutes to score. The CDI assessment can be mailed to families, completed in waiting rooms, administered by interview or by direct elicitation. The Child Development Inventories test assesses the progress of a child s social, self-help, motor, language, letter and number skills, and presence of symptoms and behavior problems.
4 These are developmental skills that can be observed by parents in everyday life settings. CDI is best used to detect early identification of developmental disorders in young children, and provides cutoffs for each of the five developmental domains; illustrating both significantly advanced and delayed development. The child Development Inventories assessment is made of three separate instruments the Infant Development Inventory (IDI), Early Child Development Inventory (ECDI), and the Preschool Development Inventory (PDI), each with 60 yes-no questions. The Infant Development Inventory (IDI) Parent Questionnaire asks parents to describe their infant and report, what their baby is doing, by using an Infant Development Chart. The IDI is used for infants up to 18 months. The Infant Development Chart shows monthly developmental skills in five areas - social, self-help, gross motor, fine motor and language, allowing parents to see a bigger picture of how their baby should be developing. The Preschool Development Inventory (PDI) obtains parents' assessments of their children's present development and possible problems. This screening is used for children between the ages of 3 to 51/2 years old. The PDI is a questionnaire, and usually ask parents to write a brief description about their child. The Early Child Development Inventory (ECDI) is used for children 18-36 months. The CDI has been used extensively in studies of early language skills of toddlers, and is continued to be used as the primary dependent variable to investigate early language development. The CDI is used primarily for assessment, often early on to obtain additional information about children whose development is questionable, for example, when a parent or professional have some question about a child s language development. The CDI results help
5 guide professional assessment of the child s functioning. The parent s CDI reports are then integrated with professional s observation and test results. The validity of CDI's was determined by the examination results for norm group children at both younger and older ages, by comparing their CDI results to psychological test results; and by examining CDI results of children with developmental and other problems. Results indicate that parents' CDI reports accurately correlate with children's age, with children's achievement of reading and math skills in kindergarten, and with placement in early childhood special education. An example of questions on the CDC are shown in the table below. Socialization Greets people with Hi or similar expression Tattles or tells on other children Shows sympathy to other children, or tries to help them Helps a little with household chores Sometimes says No when interfered with Understands Wait a minute waits patiently for short periods of time Interested in his/her own image in the mirror Self Help Feeds self with a spoon Washes and dries hands Toilet trained for urine and bowel movements Buttons one or more buttons Open doors by turning knob and pulling Dresses and undresses without help, except for tying shoelaces Eats with a fork Table 1 The CDI appears to be a useful and cost-effective screening measure for determining developmental outcomes among high-risk infants. From my research, I could not find if my district uses the Child Development Inventories Assessment. I found that they used the Woodcock Johnson and the Battelle Developmental Inventory to help determine eligibility for early childhood services.
6 References Alison Schonwald, M. F. (2014, 11 1). Screening Tools - Child Developmental Inventories. Retrieved from Children's Hospital Boston: http://www.developmentalscreening.org/ Heidi M. Feldman, C. A.-L. (2013, March 03). Measurement Properties of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories at Ages One and Two Years. Retrieved from Child Development: http://www.academicroom.com/