Revision of Denver Prescreening Developmental Questionnaire

J Pediatr. 1987 Apr;110(4):653-7. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(87)80573-5.

Abstract

The Denver Prescreening Developmental Questionnaire (PDQ), a parent-answered questionnaire, has been revised to extend the age of children who can be screened to those from 6 years down to birth, to make the test items more challenging for children and more informative for parents, and to make it easier for professionals to compare a child's performance with Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) norms. This Revised PDQ (R-PDQ) identified 84% of nonnormal DDST results. Test-retest reliability over 1 week was 94.1%, and parent-teacher agreement was 83%. A field test of the R-PDQ, conducted in a variety of settings with 1434 children, revealed that suspect scores on first-stage screening varied with the setting, from 15.6% in private pediatric practices to 50.5% in Head Start and urban day care centers. Parents found the R-PDQ interesting and easy to complete; health professionals found it economical and easy to interpret. We recommend that the R-PDQ be coupled with a brief developmental examination, and that the R-PDQ be used in busy office settings and community mass screening programs.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Child Development / physiology*
  • Child, Preschool
  • Colorado
  • Developmental Disabilities / prevention & control
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Mass Screening / methods
  • Pediatrics / methods*
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • Surveys and Questionnaires