Affordances in the home environment for motor development: Validity and reliability for the use in daycare setting

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Environmental Health
• Pediatric Motor Development

Background:

• Child development is influenced by environmental stimuli, including physical space, toys, and care practices.
• Assessing the quality of early childhood education environments is crucial for health promotion but presents challenges.
• Existing tools may not adequately capture the affordances present in collective care settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the criterion, content, construct validity, and reliability of the Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development - Infant Scale (AHEMD-IS), version 3-18 months.
• To adapt and validate the AHEMD-IS for use in daycare settings.
• To establish a tool for assessing developmental opportunities in collective child education environments.

Main Methods:

• Content validation was performed by seven experts in motor development and healthcare.
• Face validity was assessed by 20 specialists in health and education.
• The study evaluated the psychometric properties of the AHEMD-IS for infants aged 3-18 months in a daycare context.

Main Results:

• The adapted AHEMD-IS demonstrated suitability for daycare settings.
• Evidence supports the criterion, content, and construct validity of the AHEMD-IS in this new context.
• The scale showed adequate reliability for assessing motor development affordances in collective environments.

Conclusions:

• The adapted AHEMD-IS is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing the environment in daycare settings.
• This tool can effectively measure the opportunities provided by collective contexts for infant motor development.
• The validated AHEMD-IS serves as a valuable resource for promoting child development in early education environments.