Infants with perinatal risk factors such as prematurity, perinatal brain injury and/or congenital anomalies are at high risk for permanent disabilities including cerebral palsy, intellectual disability and behavioral disorders, which come at a cost of >$50 billion annually. Early assessments to determine those children at highest risk and/or who have developed permanent disabilities are essential both for clinical care and research studies. Developmental screening is necessary to identify children who require physical, occupational and other interventional therapies and is an important step along the path to maximizing potential in children who are at risk for lifelong disabilities. Gold standard developmental tests, such as the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd edition (Bayley-III), require an in-person visit to a specialized pediatric center. The Warner Initial Developmental Evaluation of Adaptive and Functional Skills (WIDEA-FS) is a functional developmental assessment that can be completed by telephone in fewer than 20 minutes. The burden of the Bayley-III to families, and research studies is a barrier that could be overcome by implementation of less costly approaches such as the novel WIDEA-FS. Although the WIDEA-FS it has been used successfully in several research studies, it has never been formally compared to a validated developmental evaluation such as the Bailey-III. The proposed cross sectional study to compare the Bayley-III to the WIDEA-FS is essential to validate this rapid, low cost developmental test.
Standardized developmental testing is used for screening and diagnosis of infants who are at risk for developmental disabilities, as well as an outcome measure for research studies. Gold standard developmental tests, such as the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd edition (Bayley-III), require an in- person visit to a specialized pediatric center. The proposed cross sectional study to compare the Bayley-III to the Warner Initial Developmental Evaluation of Adaptive and Functional Skills (WIDEA-FS), which can be administered by telephone, is essential to validate this rapid, low cost developmental test.
| Glass, Hannah C (2018) Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy and Other Neonatal Encephalopathies. Continuum (Minneap Minn) 24:57-71 |
