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The Minnesota Child Development Inventory: validity and reliability for assessing development in infancy
R Kopparthi1, C McDermott, D Sheftel
1Department of Pediatrics/Neonatology, Lutheran General Children's Medical Center, Park Ridge, Illinois 60068.
Insights
The Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI) shows strong correlations with the Bayley Scales for infant development. However, its ability to accurately identify developmental delays in infants is limited.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatric Assessment
- Neonatal Care
Background:
- The Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI) is a tool used to assess infant development.
- Reliability and validity are crucial for developmental assessment tools.
- Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) graduates require ongoing developmental monitoring.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the concurrent validity and reliability of the MCDI against the Bayley Scales of Infant Development.
- To assess the predictive values of the MCDI in identifying infants with developmental delays.
- To determine the MCDI's effectiveness in discerning delayed development in infants.
Main Methods:
- Compared MCDI general development index and subscale scores with Bayley Scales mental and psychomotor age equivalents.
- Assessed co-positivity, co-negativity, and predictive values for identifying infants with scores > 2 SD below the mean.
- Utilized a sample of 101 infants (8-19 months) from a neonatal developmental follow-up clinic.
Main Results:
- Strong correlations were found between MCDI and Bayley Scales across the entire sample and age subgroups.
- The MCDI demonstrated limited overall validity in identifying infants with significant developmental delays.
- Co-positivity and positive predictive values were relatively poor for identifying MDI/PDI delays.
Conclusions:
- The MCDI provides consistent information on infant skill development.
- The MCDI has a limited capacity to accurately discern infants with developmental delays.
- Further research may be needed to refine the MCDI or explore alternative assessment tools for early identification of developmental issues.
Abstract:
The concurrent validity and reliability of the Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI) was assessed by comparing the MCDI general development index score, and each of the seven subscale scores, with the mental and psychomotor age equivalents achieved on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. In addition, the co-positivity, co-negativity, positive and negative predictive values of the MCDI in identifying infants with a mental development index (MDI), or psychomotor development index (PDI) of greater than 2 SD below the mean were assessed. Subjects were 101 infants (8 to 19 months old) who were seen at a neonatal developmental follow-up clinic after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit. Correlations were obtained for the entire sample as well as for the two chronological age groups (i.e., 8 to 10 months and 17 to 19 months) within the sample. A strong correlation between the MCDI scales and the Bayley Mental and Psychomotor Scales was documented for the entire population as well as for the individual age groups. The overall validity of the MCDI in identifying infants with a MDI or PDI of greater than 2 SD below the mean was limited due to relatively poor co-positivity and positive predictive value. Although the MCDI may yield consistent information about the development of an infant's skills, this research suggests the MCDI has limited capacity to discern infants having delayed development.