Developing a Screening Tool for Young Children Using an Ecological Framework

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Public Health
• Child Welfare

Background:

• Children in impoverished backgrounds face significant stress impacting development.
• Early identification of developmental issues is crucial but often lacking.
• Existing screening tools are resource-intensive and fail to consider ecological factors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and pilot the Neurodevelopmental Ecological Screening Tool (NEST) for assessing young children (3-5 years) in low-resource settings.
• To evaluate the feasibility of NEST for use by caregivers and child-serving paraprofessionals.
• To incorporate an ecological perspective into developmental screening.

Main Methods:

• Developed an item pool across child, caregiver, and environment domains.
• Vetted items with experts and conducted cognitive interviews with parents and case managers.
• Utilized Item Response Theory (IRT) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on pilot data (n=60).

Main Results:

• The Neurodevelopmental Ecological Screening Tool (NEST) demonstrated feasibility for screening young children in low SES populations.
• The tool effectively incorporates ecological factors into developmental risk assessment.
• Confirmatory factor analysis supported the tool's unidimensionality and construct validity.

Conclusions:

• The NEST is a feasible and ecologically informed tool for early developmental screening in under-resourced communities.
• It empowers paraprofessionals to identify and address risks affecting young children.
• This approach bridges gaps in traditional screening methods for vulnerable populations.