Validation of the short version of the Dimensional Inventory for Child Development Assessment

• In Event: The developing of instruments to evaluate child development in Brazil

Abstract

Objectives: There is a critical need to monitor the development of children around the world, in Brazil this need is substantial since there is a paucity of assessment tools. This study aimed to describe the design, and provide evidence of reliability and validity for the Dimensional Inventory for Child Development Assessment (IDADI) and its short version (IDADI-short).
Methods: For the first study, a sample of 2,208 children with an average age of 34.96 months was assessed. The original inventory included 435 items that assess increasingly sophisticated developmental skills Cognitive, Socioemotional, Expressive and Receptive Language and Communication, Fine and Gross Motor, and Adaptive Behavior attained by children. For the second study the responses of subsample of 1,865 children aged 4 to 72 months (M =34.8, SD = 20.20) were used to empirically derive the IDADI-short using Item Response Theory. The psychometric properties of a total of 118 subscales of were obtained, and the scores were correlated with: the original inventory, criteria variables such as neurodevelopment diagnosis, socioeconomic status, and sex.
Results: Item Response Theory analysis, Cronbach's Alpha, and McDonald’s Omega indicated excellent internal consistency and optimal participant discrimination after minor alterations. Person separation and reliability were high with items that sufficiently spanned the latent trait continuum under investigation. Item’s hierarchy was consistent with expectations regarding the difficulty of various developmental skills.
IDADI-short scores were strongly associated with the original inventory, with high sensibility and specificity for developmental delays. Significant associations with relevant criteria variables are also reported.
Conclusion: Findings support the use of IDADI and IDADI-short as a parental measure of young children’s development.

Author

• Euclides Jose de Mendonça Filho, McGill University
  Presenting Author