Analysis of developmental assessment instruments for diagnosing infants and young children

 
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Abstract

The need for early diagnosis of developmental disorders, providing the child and family with early access to assistance programs, is faced with the lack of standards for their use in children aged from birth to 4 years. The article provides an overview of modern tools for assessing the development of infants and young children (from 0 to 4 years old), discusses the possibilities and limitations of their use in children, including the purposes of early intervention. To generalize the experience of international development diagnostic methods а systematic study was conducted using the NCBI (PubMed), Medline and PsycINFO databases and the keywords: developmental (neurodevelopmental) standardized assessments, test, young children, infant(s). RISC keywords were: developmental diagnostics, infants, young children. As a result, 15 tools for early developmental diagnostics were identified. Currently, there is no single international tool for assessing the development and behaviour of infants and young children. The most used developmental screening tool is the ASQ-3, which is a parent questionnaire. Among the standardized expert tests for the development access, such an instrument is the Bayley-III. Modern diagnostic tools for the child development access, in addition to the areas of cognitive, motor (motor) development, language and speech development, include areas of development related to social-emotional functioning and adaptation. To interpret the results obtained from the use of diagnostic tools that assess the child’s development, an individualized approach is required, involving the study of clinical and anamnestic data and psychosocial aspects of the family environment. In the available literature, the limited use is noted in domestic practice of internationally recognized tools for diagnosing the development of infants and young children.

General Information

Keywords: developmental (neurodevelopmental) standardized assessments, test, screening, milestone attainment, child development, young children, infant(s)

Journal rubric: Empirical and Experimental Research

Article type: scientific article

Published

For citation: Andrushchenko, N.V. (2025). Analysis of developmental assessment instruments for diagnosing infants and young children . Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Psychology, 15(2), 198–217. (In Russ.). URL: https://psyjournals.ru/en/journals/vspu_psychology/archive/2025_n2/Andrushchenko (viewed: 05.12.2025)

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Information About the Authors

Nataliia V. Andrushchenko, Candidate of Science (Medicine), Associate Professor of the Department of Mental Health and Early Support for Children and Parents, Faculty of Psychology, Saint Petersburg State University, North-Western State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov at the Ministry of Health of Russia, St.Petersburg, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1301-1668, e-mail: natvladandr@gmail.com

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