Maternal estimates of mental age in developmental assessment

To examine the accuracy and clinical utility of maternal estimates of mental age in young children referred for developmental assessment. Mothers of 100 children aged 16 to 60 months referred for developmental evaluation to psychology services of Department of Pediatrics of a tertiary care teaching hospital were asked to estimate the mental age of their child. Maternal estimates were converted to intelligence quotient (IQ) and were compared to results from developmental tests of cognitive and adaptive behavior functioning which were administered to all children. Maternal estimate IQ was highly correlated with IQ calculated from Developmental Profile II (r=.83, p