Adaptive developmental assessment of young children with cognitive and/or functional impairments

The instrument being developed aims to give additional and more refined information about the developmental course of a child with a cognitive and / or functional impairment than is possible with existing tests. It will help tune interventions to the developmental course and potentials of a child. Because the results of a developmental test weigh heavily in indication assessments and in the design and evaluation of interventions, it is of utmost importance that an adequate indication assessment is carried out and, consequently, effective support can be provided. This is even more true for children with an impairment, given the impact that a disability has on the day-to-day functioning of a child and his or her family. The aim of an assessment should be to determine the progress in development in such a way that it is sufficiently sensitive and operative for the formation of a support and intervention plan as well as for the evaluation of intervention programmes.
The new instrument will be based on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development - Third Edition (Bayley-III), a validated instrument that is widely used internationally for picturing the development of young children. It will give in to existing problems like the long test duration, floor effects and dependence on language and motor skills. Techniques used are an adaptive test procedure based on item response theory, a trichotomous scoring system (as opposed to dichotomous) and an assessment of learning potential. Furthermore, the test and its materials will be adjusted to children with motor impairments (low motor version), visual impairments (low vision version) and language or hearing problems (non verbal version). A sample of at least 420 children with a cognitive and / or functional impairment will be tested. Additional samples will be taken to investigate the validity of the adjusted tests.