Refers to some form of assessment carried out to check that the child’s development is proceeding as expected. More specifically, the purpose of developmental screening is to identify or detect children who are in need of further evaluation and diagnosis. Thus, such an instrument cannot serve to provide a diagnosis, and at best is a procedure for the early detection of children at risk for developmental disabilities. Developmental screening takes on two forms: a test or limited number of tests administered by a trained health or educational professional, and a questionnaire to be completed by parents that consists of questions about the achievement of developmental milestones. The most widely used screening instrument, especially in the States, is the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) originally devised by William K. Frankenburg (1921-2009), which covers the age range 0 to 6 years. Some have recommended that it should be excluded from use with asymptomatic children and others have shown that is does not improve school performance, but rather can increase parental anxiety, particularly for those with such children. Also, there is little supportive evidence that it facilitates the detection of developmental disabilities. In general, developmental screening instruments do not have a particularly high sensitivity for developmental disabilities; they may lead to too many false positives as well as failing to detect children with mild disabilities. However, the updated DDST II appears to have to a high sensitivity, but set against this is a limited specificity and positive predictive value, with the consequence of a high overall referral rate. Findings from a number of research projects concerned with the evaluation of developmental screening instruments have suggested their sensitivity may be lower in infants and toddlers, but higher for children older than 2 years of age. It is generally recommended that developmental screening should be combined with developmental surveillance if it is to serve a useful clinical purpose.
See Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Developmental delay, Developmental readiness, Diagnosis (or diacrisis), False negative, False positive, Indices of efficacy, Prognosis, Sensitivity (epidemiology), Specificity (epidemiology)