Early Development Standards for Children Aged 2 to 12 Months in a Low-Income Setting

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a screening tool to screen children for development problems in a low-income setting. Childhood development problems are a major health issue faced by low-income countries. A validated screening tool is needed for early identification of developmental delays. This article contains the first phase of a study that established a relatively simple tool to screen children for developmental problems. The aim of the first phase was to define a set of development indicators for the period of 2 to 12 months of life. The study methodology consisted of an extensive literature review, to develop a set of indicators to measure child development in infancy. The indicators were placed within a framework developed and used by experts in other countries. It consists of major domains, subdomains, specific aspects, and standards of development. This was followed by content validation of the indicators. Following review of literature, 171 indicators were compiled under the framework. At the end of content validation, 125 indicators were retained in the framework. These were pretested, and another 26 were removed following pretesting. The study developed a framework of indicators that could be used as a development tool following a reference-based validation. The second phase of the study that included the assessment of psychometric characteristics and reference-based validation would be published in a separate article.