PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR CHILDRENS DEVELOPMENT

Parents' or caregivers' perceptions of their infants' overall developm ent may serve as a reliable screen for clinical decisions regarding th e need for further assessment. To determine whether caregivers were ac curate in estimating infant development, 27 caregivers were asked to a nswer four questions about their infants before standardized assessmen t by a paediatric physical therapist. Their responses were compared wi th the professional's ratings on the Bayley Scales of Infant Developme nt. Specificity of the parents' estimate with the Bayley Mental Scale was 85.9 per cent and sensitivity 60 per cent; using the Bayley Motor Scale as the outcome criterion, specificity reached 90.9 per cent and sensitivity 80 per cent. Results of this pilot study support the accur acy of caregiver estimates of their infants' overall development, thus suggesting that professionals should pay close attention to caregiver s' concerns about their children's development.