Monitoring the developmental progress of infants designated as at-risk for medical or environmental reasons is an important activity that is often not carried out because accurate low-cost methods of tracking and screening infants are not available. To address this problem, state agencies have adopted varying strategies to follow and screen groups of at-risk infants. Several counties in Oregon are examining the use of a screening system that uses parents to complete a series of developmental questionnaires. The questionnaires are short and easy to complete and are mailed to parents when the infant is 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, and 36 months of age. A series of studies on the cost, reliability, and validity of the questionnaires have been conducted on a population of at-risk infants and their parents. These data indicate the questionnaires are low-cost and have substantial agreement with standardized test assessment of the infants.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Als, H. (1981). Assessing infant individuality. In C.C. Brown (Ed.), Infants at risk (pp. 24-31). Johnson & Johnson Baby Products Company: Pediatric Round-Table Series .
2.
Biro, P., & Bell, M. (1986). Data analysis summary report (October 1982-March 1, 1986). In C. Sells (Ed.), Nigh priority infant tracking project. (Tracking portion of the final report) . Seattle: Washington State Office of Parent Child Health Services in Cooperation with the University of Washington, Child Development and Mental Retardation Center.
3.
Blackman, J., & Hein, H. (1985). lowa's system for screening and tracking high-risk infants. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 139, 826-831.
4.
Bricker, D. (1986). Early education of at-risk and handicapped infants, toddler, and preschool children. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company.
5.
Bricker, D., & Dow, M. (1980). Early intervention with the young severely handicapped child. Journal of the Association for the Severely Handicapped , 5, 130-142.
6.
Bricker, D., & Littman, D. (1985). Parental monitoring of infant development. In R. McMahon & R. Peters (Eds.), Childhood disorders: Behavioral-developmental approaches (pp. 90-115). New York: Brunner/Mazel .
7.
Bricker, D., Squires, J., Kaminski, R., & Mounts, L. (1988). The validity, reliability, and cost of a parent-completed questionnaire to evaluate their at-risk infants. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 13, 5-68.
8.
Casto, G., & Mastropieri, M.A. (1986). The efficacy of early intervention programs: A meta-analysis. Exceptional Children , 52, 417-424.
9.
Clunies-Ross, G. (1979). Accelerating the development of Down's syndrome infants and young children. The Journal of Special Education , 13, 169-177.
10.
Crombie, S., & Darlow, B. (1986, April). Neurodevelopmental outcome for infants of very low birthweight admitted to a regional neonatal unit, 1979-1983. The New Zealand Medical Journal, 99, 223-226.
11.
Drillien, C., Thoman, A., & Burgogne, K. (1980). Low-birthweight children at early school-age: A longitudinal study. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology , 22, 26-47.
12.
French, J.H. (1985). Postnatal screening for hereditary and metabolic disorders. In S. Harel & N.J. Anastasiow (Eds.), The at-risk infant : Psycho/socio/medical aspects (pp. 171-177). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
13.
Hayden, A., & Haring, N. (1977). The acceleration and maintenance of developmental gains in Down's syndrome school-age children. In P. Mittler (Ed.), Research to practice in mental retardation. Vol. 1, Care and intervention (pp. 129-141). Baltimore: University Park Press.
14.
Kaye, K. (1986). A four-dimensional model of risk assessment and intervention. In D.C. Farran & J.D. McKinney (Eds.), Risk in intellectual and psychosocial development (pp. 273-286). New York: Academic Press.
15.
Knobloch, H., Stevens, F., & Malone, A. (1980). Manual of developmental diagnosis: The administration and interpretation of the revised Gesell and Armatruda developmental and neurological examination. Hagerstown, MD: Harper & Row.
16.
Kraemer, H., Korner, A., & Hurwitz, S. (1985). A model for assessing the development of preterm infants as a function of gestational, conceptual, or chronological age. Developmental Psychology, 21, 806-812.
17.
Legum, C. (1985). Antenatal screening for fetal malformations and genetic disorders. In S. Harel & N.J. Anastasiow (Eds.), The at-risk infant: Psycho/socio/medical aspects (pp. 115-119). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
18.
McCarton, C., & Vaughan, H. (1984). Perinatal variables and neurodevelopmental outcomes with preterm births. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, 27, 664-671.
19.
Meisels, S., Wiske, M., & Tivnan, T. (1984). Predicting school performance with the early screening inventory. Psychology in the Schools, 21, 25-33.
20.
National Center for Clinical Infant Programs ( 1985). Keeping track: Tracking systems for high risk infants and young children. Washington, DC: Author.
21.
North Carolina High Priority Infant Program ( 1984). North Carolina high priority infant program: Guidelines and procedures. Raleigh, NC: Department of Human Resources, Division of Health Services, Maternal and Child Care Section .
22.
Parmalee, A.H., & Cohen, S.E. (1985). Neonatal follow-up services for infants at risk . In S. Harel & N.J. Anastasiow (Eds.), The at-risk infant: Psycho/social/medical aspects (pp. 269-273). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
23.
Sciarillo, W., Brown, M., Robinson, N., Bennett, F., & Sells, C. (1986). Effectiveness of the Denver Developmental Screening Test with biologically vulnerable infants. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 1(2), 77-83.
24.
Sell, E. (1986). Outcome of very very low birth weight infants . Clinics in Perinatology, 13, 451-459.
25.
Shonkoff, J. (1983). The limitations of normative assessments of high-risk infants. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 3(1), 29-43.
26.
Shonkoff, J., & Hauser-Cram, P. (1987). Early intervention for disabled infants and their families: A quantitative analysis. Pediatrics, 80, 650-658.
Vohr, B., & Coll, T. (1985). Neurodevelopmental and school performance of very low-birthweight infants: A seven-year longitudinal study. Pediatrics, 76, 345-349.
