Early identification of children with developmental disabilities

This paper provides an overview of research into early identification of ch ildren with developmental disabilities in child healthcare, especially thos e disabilities related to cognitive impairment. The review covers the follo wing related topics: definition of the target group, the predictive value o f developmental screening instruments and psychomotor tests, risk indexes, early intervention and evaluation of developmental screening programmes. Em pirical research into child development and the predictive value of develop mental tests is extensive. However, proportionally few, mostly cohort or ca se-control, studies focusing on evaluation of developmental screening progr ammes conducted within a clinical setting were found. Some sensitivity and most specificity rates reported fell within what is considered acceptable f or developmental screening performed in the pre-school years, i.e. a sensit ivity of more than 70% and a specificity between 70% and 80%. Overall, betw een 1-6% of the children screened were identified. Typically, most children with severe disabilities were identified prior to the screening or excluded from the studies reviewed. The shortcomings of de velopmental screening (instruments) and difficulties in early identificatio n are discussed.