Study objective: The aim of the study was to examine the usefulness of maternal recall of selected developmental milestones by testing their correlations with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID-II).
Material and methods: Prospective cohort study. The cohort recruited prenatally, included 387 children. The BSID-II tests were carried out in each child at the end of the 12th, 24th and 36th month of life. When children were 3 years old, mothers were questioned about their child's age at attainment of 8 significant developmental milestones.
Results: The infants who attained developmental milestones earlier in their first years of life were more likely to achieved a better scores on the motor scale of the BSID-II. Correlation coefficients ranged from -0.117 for bladder control to -0.424 for standing without assistance and -0.586 for walking unassisted. Correlation arose when the difference between the time of achieving a particular milestone and time of managing the BSID-II was smaller.
Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that maternal reports of developmental milestones of children under 3 years old are sufficiently reliable to be used in clinical judgment.