Development and validation of an instrument for monitoring child development indicators

IntroductionCultivating child health and development creates long-term impact on the well-being of the individual and society. The Amazon of Peru has high levels of many risk factors that are associated with poor child development. The use of ‘community health agents’ (CHAs) has been shown to be a potential solution to improve child development outcomes. Additionally, mobile information and communication technology (ICT) can potentially increase the performance and impact of CHAs. However, there is a knowledge gap in how mobile ICT can be deployed to improve child development in low resource settings.Methods and analysisThe current study will evaluate the implementation and impact of a tablet-based application that intends to improve the performance of CHAs, thus improving the child-rearing practices of caregivers and ultimately child health and development indicators. The CHAs will use the app during their home visits to record child health indicators and present information, images and videos to teach key health messages. The impact will be evaluated through an experimental cluster randomised controlled trial. The clusters will be assigned to the intervention or control group based on a covariate-constrained randomisation method. The impact on child development scores, anaemia and chronic malnutrition will be assessed with an analysis of covariance. The secondary outcomes include knowledge of healthy child-rearing practices by caregivers, performance of CHAs and use of health services. The process evaluation will report on implementation outcomes. The study will be implemented in the Amazon region of Peru with children under 4. The results of the study will provide evidence on the potential of a mHealth tool to improve child health and development indicators in the region.Ethics and disseminationThe study received approval from National Hospital ‘San Bartolome’ Institutional Ethics Committee on 8 November 2018 (IRB Approval #15463–18) and will be disseminated via peer-reviewed publications.Trial registration numberISRCTN43591826.

Download Full-text

The Development and Validation of Australian Indices of Child Development—Part I: Conceptualisation and Development

Child Indicators Research ◽

10.1007/s12187-009-9058-2 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 275-292 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Ann V. Sanson ◽

◽

Sebastian Misson ◽

Mary T. Hawkins ◽

Donna Berthelsen

Keyword(s):

Child Development ◽

Development And Validation

Download Full-text

Western Australian Child Development Atlas: Visualising Data on Child Health, Education and Well-Being

International Journal for Population Data Science ◽

10.23889/ijpds.v5i5.1596 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Emma L Fuller ◽

Megan Bell ◽

Sims Sims ◽

Rebecca Glauert ◽

David Ansell

Keyword(s):

Child Development ◽

Youth Development ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Service Providers ◽

Population Level ◽

Well Being ◽

Service Planning ◽

Development Indicators ◽

Mapping Tool ◽

Geographic Boundaries

IntroductionThe WA Child Development Atlas (CDA) is a unique resource that generates geographic profiles of the development, health and well-being of WA children. The CDA has been developed at the Telethon Kids Institute with funding from the Ian Potter and Minderoo Foundations and in partnership with government agencies and service providers. Objectives and ApproachVisualisation of data within geographic boundaries helps to build a picture of ‘place’. This informs better decision making and underpins the development of evidence-based policy and service planning that acknowledges the differing needs of communities. The CDA is an online, interactive mapping tool that utilises geographic information system (GIS) technologies to identify spatial patterns in population-level child and youth development indicators. Data are sourced from core health, social, and linked administrative datasets, from 1990 onwards. Aggregated, de-identified data on children and young people (0-24 years) and their parents are mapped within geographic boundaries across WA. The CDA was piloted to ensure it is useful and relevant to a diversity of stakeholders. Extensive community consultation has been undertaken at all stages of the project. The CDA has been received favourably by consumers, government organisations, communities and researchers, with significant support for public launch. ResultsThe CDA is a freely available, confidential and secure resource. Features of the CDA include: it is online and interactive (no software is required), area profiles, downloadable charts, tables and summary statistics, map panning and zooming. The Atlas has been used to generate community profiles and empowers all the people of WA with enhanced knowledge and understanding of the development of children. Conclusion / ImplicationsThe CDA has built capacity to use spatial information, assisting agencies who make decisions relevant to child development and to facilitate cross-agency collaboration. It is an important and valuable resource utilising disparate data sources with significant public benefit.

Download Full-text

Developmental losses in young children from pre-primary program closures during the COVID-19 pandemic

10.18235/0003920 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Alejandra Abufhele ◽

David Bravo ◽

Florencia Lopez-Boo ◽

Pamela Soto-Ramirez

Keyword(s):

Child Development ◽

Young Children ◽

Language Development ◽

Longitudinal Data ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Early Years ◽

Older Children ◽

Development Indicators ◽

Primary Program ◽

The Impact

The learning and developmental losses from pre-primary program closures due to COVID-19 may be unprecedented. These disruptions early in life, when the brain is more sensitive to environmental changes, can be long-lasting. Although there is evidence about the effects of school closures on older children, there is currently no evidence on such losses for children in their early years. This paper is among the first to quantify the actual impact of pandemic-related closures on child development, in this case for a sample of young children in Chile, where school and childcare closures lasted for about a year. We use a unique dataset collected face-to-face in December 2020, which includes child development indicators for general development, language development, social-emotional development, and executive function. We are able to use a first difference strategy because Chile has a history of collecting longitudinal data on children as part of their national social policies monitoring strategy. This allows us to construct a valid comparison group from the 2017 longitudinal data. We find adverse impacts on children in 2020 compared to children interviewed in 2017 in most development areas. In particular, nine months after the start of the pandemic, we find a loss in language development of 0.25 SDs. This is equivalent to the impact on a childs language development of having a mother with approximately five years less education. Timely policies are needed to mitigate these enormous losses.

Download Full-text

The Development and Validation of Australian Indices of Child Development—Part II: Validity Support

Child Indicators Research ◽

10.1007/s12187-009-9049-3 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 293-312 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Ann V. Sanson ◽

◽

Mary T. Hawkins ◽

Sebastian Misson

Keyword(s):

Child Development ◽

Development And Validation

Download Full-text

Family Policies in Quebec and the Rest of Canada: Implications for Fertility, Child-Care, Women’s Paid Work, and Child Development Indicators

Canadian Public Policy ◽

10.3138/cpp.39.2.221 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 221-240 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Roderic Beaujot ◽

Ching Jiangqin Du ◽

Zenaida Ravanera

Keyword(s):

Child Care ◽

Child Development ◽

Paid Work ◽

Family Policies ◽

Development Indicators

Download Full-text

The Concurrent Validity of the Minnesota Child Development Inventory as a Measure of Young Children's Language Development

Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders ◽

10.1044/jshd.5401.101 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 54 (1) ◽

pp. 101-105 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

J. Bruce Tomblin ◽

Cynthia M. Shonrock ◽

James C. Hardy

Keyword(s):

Child Development ◽

Language Development ◽

Expressive Language ◽

Strong Predictor ◽

Receptive Language ◽

Strongly Correlated ◽

Language Measure ◽

The Mean ◽

Child Development Inventory ◽

Mean Length Of Utterance

The extent to which the Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI), could be used to estimate levels of language development in 2-year-old children was examined. Fifty-seven children between 23 and 28 months were given the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development (SICD), and at the same time a parent completed the MCDI. In addition the mean length of utterance (MLU) was obtained for each child from a spontaneous speech sample. The MCDI Expressive Language scale was found to be a strong predictor of both the SICD Expressive scale and MLU. The MCDI Comprehension-Conceptual scale, presumably a receptive language measure, was moderately correlated with the SICD Receptive scale; however, it was also strongly correlated with the expressive measures. These results demonstrated that the Expressive Language scale of the MCDI was a valid predictor of expressive language for 2-year-old children. The MCDI Comprehension-Conceptual scale appeared to assess both receptive and expressive language, thus complicating its interpretation.

Download Full-text

Complex Trauma and Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: Clinical Implications

Perspectives on School-Based Issues ◽

10.1044/sbi13.2.32 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 32-42 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Yvette D. Hyter

Keyword(s):

Central Nervous System ◽

Nervous System ◽

Child Development ◽

Academic Outcomes ◽

Complex Trauma ◽

Prenatal Alcohol Exposure ◽

Alcohol Exposure ◽

Clinical Implications ◽

Prenatal Alcohol ◽

The Brain

Abstract Complex trauma resulting from chronic maltreatment and prenatal alcohol exposure can significantly affect child development and academic outcomes. Children with histories of maltreatment and those with prenatal alcohol exposure exhibit remarkably similar central nervous system impairments. In this article, I will review the effects of each on the brain and discuss clinical implications for these populations of children.

Download Full-text