Low Cost System Using Parents to Monitor the Development of At-Risk Infants

Abstract

Monitoring the developmental progress of infants designated as at-risk for medical or environmental reasons is an important activity that is often not carried out because accurate low-cost methods of tracking and screening infants are not available. To address this problem, state agencies have adopted varying strategies to follow and screen groups of at-risk infants. Several counties in Oregon are examining the use of a screening system that uses parents to complete a series of developmental questionnaires. The questionnaires are short and easy to complete and are mailed to parents when the infant is 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, and 36 months of age. A series of studies on the cost, reliability, and validity of the questionnaires have been conducted on a population of at-risk infants and their parents. These data indicate the questionnaires are low-cost and have substantial agreement with standardized test assessment of the infants.