Developmental testing in early infancy: aspects of stability and change in German preterm born infants and other biological high risk infants

Early cognitive delay is a crucial symptom in infants with high biological risk and has a high impact on further development and quality of life. Thus developmental testing serves not only the quality assurance of medical procedures, but is the base of guidance of families and intervention planning. On the other hand, a long debate exists about stability of early mental performances (Bayley 1949, Hack et al. 2005). Especially for examinations before the age of 2 years, low correlations to later performances are the rule. We report about a heterogeneous group of biological high risk infants (N=48), that was tested twice (testing age 5–36 month) with an internationally well accepted developmental test (Bayley Scales of Infant Development 2nd ed., Bayley 1993). In total, we found high correlations between two assessment times, high specificity and sensitivity. With focus on a homogeneous subgroup of preterm born infants the correlations were even higher. We discuss single cases with extreme improvement or deterioration in order to underline the impact of clinical aspects for the interpretation of developmental tests in biological high risk infants.