Dynamic Assessment With the Bayley-III Among Young Children With Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

This article describes the results of a pilot study into the newly developed dynamic version of the Bayley-III Cognition scale. We explored the responses of children to the dynamic version (n = 57) and the companion task behavior questionnaire (n = 93) using administrations among children with developmental disabilities. Furthermore, we studied the added clinical value compared to the standard Bayley-III using expert interviews with 6 educational psychologists. Results showed that there is clear variability in the responses of children to the help-steps that belong to the dynamic procedure and in the score difference between the pretest and posttest. The educational psychologists indicated that the dynamic procedure clearly has added value for specific groups of children, such as children in the preliminary stage of school placement and children from socially disadvantaged families. The task behavior questionnaire was evaluated positively by most educational psychologists. We conclude that the dynamic procedure provides added value for the developmental assessment of children with developmental disabilities. We finish with suggestions for future research into the dynamic Bayley-III.