Early identification of children with developmental disabilities

This paper provides an overview of research into early identification of children with developmental disabilities in child healthcare, especially those disabilities related to cognitive impairment. The review covers the following related topics: definition of the target group, the predictive value of developmental screening instruments and psychomotor tests, risk indexes, early intervention and evaluation of developmental screening programmes. Empirical research into child development and the predictive value of developmental tests is extensive. However, proportionally few, mostly cohort or case‐control, studies focusing on evaluation of developmental screening programmes conducted within a clinical setting were found. Some sensitivity and most specificity rates reported fell within what is considered acceptable for developmental screening performed in the pre‐school years, i.e. a sensitivity of more than 70% and a specificity between 70% and 80%. Overall, between 1–6% of the children screened were identified. Typically, most children with severe disabilities were identified prior to the screening or excluded from the studies reviewed. The shortcomings of developmental screening (instruments) and difficulties in early identification are discussed.