The effectiveness of parental screening of at-risk infants: the infant monitoring questionnaires. Top Early Child Spec Educ 9

This study examined the validity, reliability, and cost of a parent-completed screening system called the Infant Monitoring Questionnaires. This system relies on parents to complete developmental questionnaires on their at-risk infants at specific time intervals. The present work replicated and extended a previous study of the questionnaires. The primary analyses included deter-mining (a) the agreement between the infant's classification based on the parent-completed questionnaire and a criterion measure (e.g., Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test, Revised Gesell Developmental Schedules); (b) interobserver and test-retest reliability of the questionnaires; and (c) the cost of the questionnaire system. The results indicated that percentage agreement between classifications of infants made using the standardized tests and the questionnaires was high, ranging from 86 % to 9 1 %. Under screening rates were low, ranging from zero to 6%; overscreening rates were also low, ranging from 3 % to 1 1 %. Interobserver and test-retest agreement were very high. At a cost of about $2.50 per questionnaire, the screening system provides an economical and flexible means of screening at-risk infants while at the same time involving parents in the assessment process. Early treatment of infants and young children with developmen-tal disabilities is crucial if the impact of disability is to be minimized (Bricker, 1986; Guralnick & Bennett, 1987; Shonkoff & Hauser-Cram, 1987). Despite progress in the delivery of comprehensive early intervention services to children with handicaps, serious barriers exist to the delivery of services to all eligible children. One major obstacl