Predicting School Problems from Preschool Developmental Screening: A Four-Year Follow-Up of the Revised Denver Developmental Screening Test and the Role of Parent Report

Abstract

The following study compared the effectiveness of the Revised Denver Developmental Screening Test (RDDST) with parental reports of developmental concerns in predicting school problems 4 years following a preschool screening program. Results suggest that the RDDST accurately identified, in the preschool years, only those children who were later found to have severe learning problems in school. The majority of children who had subsequent school problems were not identified by this screening measure. The data also suggest that the concerns of parents about their child's cognitive/academic skills were at least as effective as the child's performance on the RDDST in predicting school problems. Implications of these findings for preschool screening are discussed.