Developmental performance of 5-year-old Bulgarian children-An example of translational neuroscience in practice

Developmental testing is essential for early recognition of the various developmental impairments. The tools used should be composed of items that are age specific, adapted, and standardized for the population they are applied to. The achievements of neurosciences, medicine, psychology, pedagogy, etc. are applied in the elaboration of a comprehensive examination tool that should screen all major areas of development. The key age of 5 years permits identification of almost all major developmental disabilities leaving time for therapeutic intervention before school entrance. The aim of the research is to evaluate the developmental performance of 5-year-old Bulgarian children using the approach of translation neuroscience.

A comprehensive test program was developed composed of 89 items grouped in the following domains: fine and gross motor development, coordination and balance, central motor neuron disturbances, language development and articulation, perception, attention and behavior, visual acuity, and strabismus. The overall sample comprises 434 children of mean age 63.5 months (SD-3.7). Male to female ratio is 1:1.02. From this group, 390 children are between 60 and 71 months of age. The children are examined in 51 kindergartens in 21 villages and 18 cities randomly chosen in southern Bulgaria. Eight children were excluded from the final analysis because they fulfilled less than 50% of the test items (7 children did not cooperate and 1 child was with autistic spectrum disorder).

The items with abnormal response in less than 5% of the children are 43. The items with abnormal response in 6% to 35% of the children are 37. The items with high abnormal response (more than 35%) rate are only 9.

The test is an example of a translational approach in neuroscience. On one hand, it is based on the results of several sciences studying growth and development from different perspective. On the other hand, the results from the present research may be implemented in other fields of child development-education, psychology, speech and language therapy, and intervention programs.