Developmental Screening of Preschool Children: A Critical Review of Inventories Used in Health and Educational Programs

Abstract

Five developmental screening inventories, currently popular in health and educational programs, are compared on relevant technical and practical criteria. All five have limitations because their norms are based on small samples of children who are often not representative of the children later screened. Until carefully conducted longitudinal studies of normal children of different racial, socioeconomic, and educational backgrounds are available, these inventories cannot be used for prediction of future potential. However, when administered by a properly trained person, each of these procedures can be used as a narrative description—if not a numerical score—a profile for planning the health and education of the preschool child.