haak Walton Killam Hospital for Children

The Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI) provides an easily ad-ministered, time- and cost-effective means for parents to report their child's developmental status. The present study examined its concurrent validity in identifying the developmental status of 138 young patients (1-6 years) re-ferred to a pediatric hospital. The results showed that, consistent with previous studies, the MCDI does have clinical validity in identifying the correct developmental status of preschoolers, but it was significantly poorer in iden-tifying the developmental status of infants. The results are discussed in terms of a possible developmental trend in the accuracy of parental questionnaires in early developmental assessment. KEY WORDS: Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI); developmental assessment; infants; preschoolers. 'The authors thank J. Tibbies and J. Dooley for their valuable critiques of this manuscript, Bonnie Hondas and Nancy Harvie for their help in data transcription, and Janice Nugent for her secretarial assistance. 2A11 correspondence should be sent to either Joseph M. Byrne or Joan E. Backman, Departmen