Early identification of preschool children with developmental delays in Taiwan

Graduation date: 2005Early intervention services promote children's optimal health. The benefit of\ud early intervention is invaluable to society for years to come. One important step in\ud providing early intervention is the identification of children who need early\ud intervention services. In Taiwan, the lack of a culturally appropriate, reliable, and valid\ud child developmental screening instrument for Taiwanese children has significantly hindered the effectiveness and accuracy of identifying children who might benefit from early intervention services. One method has been to translate child development instruments from other countries. However, direct use of translated foreign child development assessment instruments is questionable, unless the tool has been adequately validated in Taiwan. The present study examined the culturally appropriateness and effectiveness of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) for three-year-old children in Taiwan. The\ud ASQ is a low-cost and widely used child development screening instrument in the\ud United States. The 36-month ASQ was translated into Manderin Chinese and back translated into English. The translated 36-month ASQ was then reviewed by five Taiwanese child development experts before distribution. The sample included 101 children with no known developmental delays from 34 preschools in Taiwan and 11 children with diagnosed developmental delays who were registered with the Child Welfare service\ud agency in Pingtung area in southern Taiwan. The 36-month ASQ were completed by the parents and the teachers of these 112 Taiwanese children. Results indicated that the translated Chinese 36-month ASQ was a culturally appropriate child developmental screening instrument for three-year-old Taiwanese children. The Chinese 36-month ASQ demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, and criterion validity. However, some issues were identified concerning the content and construct validity of the problem solving and personal social subscales for the translated Chinese 36-month ASQ. In addition, comparison of the 36-month ASQ subscale means found significant differences between the Taiwanese and the U. S. samples on the fine motor and problem solving subscales. Before the translated Chinese 36-month ASQ can be used as a developmental screening instrument in Taiwan, further investigations are needed to establish it's content and construct validity as well as the Taiwanese 36-month ASQ subscale cutoff points using a larger and more representative sample. The current study contributes to the literature of cross-cultural assessment and had significant practical implications for early identification of children with developmental delays in Taiwan. The study concluded that the translated Chinese 36-month ASQ is a culturally appropriate and reliable tool for Taiwanese children; however, further investigations of the content and construct validity are needed before the ASQ can be recommended for use in Taiwan