The kleineWeltentdecker App - A Smartphone-Based Developmental Diary

Today, a vast amount of tools exist to measure development in early childhood in a variety of domains such as motor, cognition, or language. These tools vary in different aspects. Either children are examined by a trained experimenter, or caregivers fill out questionnaires. The tools are applied in the controlled setting of a laboratory or in the children's natural environment. While these tools provide a detailed picture of the current state of children’s development, they are at the same time subject to a number of constraints. The measurement of an individual child's change of different skills over time requires high-density longitudinal assessments. These assessments are time-consuming, often need experts to be performed, and the breadth of developmental domains assessed remains limited. Here, we present a novel tool to assess the development of different skills in different domains, a smartphone-based developmental diary app (the kleineWeltentdecker App, henceforth referred to as the APP. Note that the German expression “kleine Weltententdecker“ can be translated as “young world explorers“.). By using the APP, parents can track changes in their children's skills during development. Here, we report the construction and validation of the questionnaires embedded in the APP as well as the technical details. Empirical validations with children of different age groups confirmed the robustness of the different measures implemented in the APP. In addition, we report a few preliminary findings, for example, on children's communicative development by using preliminary APP data. This substantiates the validity of the assessment. With the APP, we put a portable tool for the longitudinal documentation of individual children’s development in every caregiver's pocket, worldwide.

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The Early Prelinguistic Skills in Iranian Infants and Toddlers

Iranian Rehabilitation Journal ◽

10.32598/irj.19.4.1605.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 (4) ◽

pp. 441-454

Author(s):

Narges Bayat ◽

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Atieh Ashtari ◽

Mohsen Vahedi ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Family History ◽

Speech Therapy ◽

Positive Family History ◽

Age Groups ◽

Language Disorders ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

History Of ◽

The Impact ◽

Children's Development ◽

Children’S Development

Objectives: The prelinguistic skills which pave the way for language development have always been an area of research in the Speech Therapy field. Although studying these skills is important, there is a study gap among Persian children. Therefore, this study explored prelinguistic skills among a sample of Persian-speaking children aged 6 to 24 months and made a comparison between different age groups. We also studied the effects of gender and family history of speech-language disorders on children’s prelinguistic abilities. Methods: In the present study, 277 mothers of Iranian Persian-speaking children aged 6 to 24 months were asked to fill a research-made checklist that evaluated the prelinguistic skills of their children. This study was cross-sectional and was conducted in Tehran City, Iran, in 2021. Children’s abilities in different age groups were compared using the analysis of variance (ANOVA), Scheffe test, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the post-hoc test. The differences between the total scores of the two genders were also determined using the Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Comparing the prelinguistic skills in different age groups indicated a statistically significant increase in the scores as children grow up. Children with a positive family history of speech-language disorders scored lower on the checklist than the others (91.03±17.37). Furthermore, there were statistically significant differences between the two genders in developing gesture, vocalization, first words, social interaction, imitation, and play; girls had higher scores. Conclusion: Based on the studies conducted in different countries, prelinguistic skills develop as children grow up; these skills facilitate language acquisition and other social skills. The present study also demonstrated the development of these skills alongside children’s development. This similarity between Persian-speaking children and other children from different cultures and languages, as well as better performance in children with a negative family history of speech-language impairments, confirm the role of genetic factors in children’s development. Moreover, the differences in the development of some prelinguistic skills between girls and boys reveal the impact of various factors, such as social factors, on prelinguistic skills development.

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Determinants of neonatal brain-derived neurotrophic factor and association with child development

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579417000414 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 1499-1511 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Akhgar Ghassabian ◽

Rajeshwari Sundaram ◽

Nikhita Chahal ◽

Alexander C. McLain ◽

Erin Bell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Child Development ◽

Preterm Infants ◽

Neurotrophic Factor ◽

Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor ◽

Dried Blood Spots ◽

Infertility Treatment ◽

Linear Regression Models ◽

Developmental Domains ◽

Children's Development ◽

Children’S Development

AbstractUsing a population-based birth cohort in upstate New York (2008–2010), we examined the determinants of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) measured in newborn dried blood spots (n = 2,637). We also examined the association between neonatal BDNF and children's development. The cohort was initially designed to examine the influence of infertility treatment on child development but found no impact. Mothers rated children's development in five domains repeatedly through age 3 years. Socioeconomic and maternal lifestyle determinants of BDNF were examined using multivariable linear regression models. Generalized linear mixed models estimated odds ratios for neonatal BDNF in relation to failing a developmental domain. Smoking and drinking in pregnancy, nulliparity, non-White ethnicity/race, and prepregnancy obesity were associated with lower neonatal BDNF. Neonatal BDNF was not associated with failure for developmental domains; however, there was an interaction between BDNF and preterm birth. In preterm infants, a higher BDNF was associated with lower odds of failing any developmental domains, after adjusting for confounders and infertility treatment. This result was particularly significant for failure in communication. Our findings suggest that BDNF levels in neonates may be impacted by maternal lifestyle characteristics. More specifically, lower neonatal BDNF might be an early marker of aberrant neurodevelopment in preterm infants.

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The Relation between the Eruption of the Deciduous Teeth and the Development and Growth of the Child

Journal of University of Babylon for Pure and Applied Sciences ◽

10.29196/jubpas.v27i1.2076 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 113-117

Author(s):

Sulafa Khair Al-Deen Banoosh

Keyword(s):

Deciduous Teeth ◽

Fine Motor ◽

Gross Motor ◽

Developmental Domains ◽

Children's Development ◽

Children’S Development

This article aimed to find any relation between the eruption of the deciduous teeth and the development and growth of the child. This study included 77 children, aged between (1-2) years old all examined orally for any deciduous teeth eruption and record any delayed case, the parents of child answered 30 questions about the children's development. The results of this study shown that there were no significant differences (P<0.05) between the teething (eruption of teeth) and the five developmental domains. Delayed teething was seen more among those with normal gross motor, and among those with delayed fine motor (statistically significant at 0.5 level). No relation between the eruption of the teeth and the development of the child and the teething time might be affected by local causes more than the systemic cause; these results need more researches and studies to prove these facts.

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