Do the Brigance Screens Detect Developmental and Academic Problems?

Abstract

The Brigance Screens are a series of popular measures designed to quickly detect children between two and seven years of age who may have developmental difficulties. With the exception of the Kindergarten form, it is not known which score (out of a possible 100) is the best cutoff for sensitively detecting children with possible problems while also minimizing over-referrals. In order to locate optimal cutoffs, 408 children between 21 and 48 months of age were recruited from sites representing the geographic regions and demographic characteristics of the United States. Each child was administered the appropriate Brigance Form and a criterion battery that included measures of achievement, language, adaptive behavior, and intelligence. Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses were used to locate optimal cutoff scores for each form of the Brigance. Using these cutoff scores, between 72% and 100% of children with developmental difficulties were identified. At the same time, between 73% and 100% of children with normal development could also be correctly identified. These values approach standards for screening tests and suggest that the Brigance Screens are a valuable early detection tool, if appropriate cutoff scores are used.