Evaluation of the Developmental Assessment for Intervention Manual (DAIM) for developmental screening in high-risk infants at 12 months of corrected age
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Published on: August 25, 2014
Cholthicha Ratanatharathorn1, Sureelak Sutchritpongsa2, Wanpen Ritthita2
1Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand.
Insights
The Developmental Assessment for Intervention Manual (DAIM) effectively screens motor delays in high-risk infants but may miss expressive language delays. Early detection is crucial for intervention opportunities.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Public Health
Background:
- Early detection of developmental delay is critical for timely intervention.
- The Developmental Assessment for Intervention Manual (DAIM) is a simplified, widely used screening tool in Thailand for infant developmental delay.
- DAIM's ease of use by lay staff or parents and reduced time commitment distinguish it from standard assessment tools.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the accuracy of the DAIM for detecting developmental delay in high-risk infants.
- To assess the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of DAIM across four developmental domains.
Main Methods:
- A single-center prospective study involving 126 high-risk infants (corrected age 12 months) with a history of birth asphyxia or low birth weight.
- Infants underwent assessment using the Bayley-III scale followed by the DAIM during the same visit.
- Data analysis focused on comparing DAIM performance against Bayley-III scores as the reference standard.
Main Results:
- DAIM demonstrated high sensitivity and negative predictive value for gross motor (83.3%, 97.7%) and fine motor (57.1%, 97.2%) domains.
- Sensitivity for receptive language (55%) and expressive language (19.2%) domains was lower.
- Specificity was high across all domains, particularly for expressive language (92%).
Conclusions:
- The DAIM is effective in screening motor delays in high-risk infants due to its high sensitivity and NPV in motor domains.
- However, the DAIM's low sensitivity for expressive language may lead to missed diagnoses in this domain.
- Using DAIM alone for high-risk infants requires careful consideration, especially for identifying expressive language delays.
Abstract:
Early detection of developmental delay provides opportunities for early intervention. The Developmental Assessment for Intervention Manual (DAIM) is the simplified screening tool for detection of developmental delay in Thai young infants implemented country-wide by the Ministry of Public Health since 2015. Unlike standard assessment tool, DAIM can be obtained by lay staff or parents and takes less time. We aimed to evaluate the accuracy of the DAIM for detection of developmental delay among high-risk infants. This single center prospective study was conducted from May, 2017 to December, 2021. The infants with corrected aged of 12 months with history of birth asphyxia or low birth weight (<2500 g) who visited a tertiary hospital for developmental assessment were invited to participate the study. The four developmental domains (gross motor, fine motor, receptive language, and expressive language) were assessed by Bayley-III and followed by DAIM in the same visit. The 126 infants were enrolled, 50% were male. Using Bayley-III score < 7 as reference, the sensitivity for gross motor domain, fine motor domain, receptive language and expressive language were 83.3%, 57.1%, 55% and 19.2%, respectively. Specificity for each domain was 75.4%, 88.2%, 74.5% and 92%. Positive predictive value for each domain was 26.3%, 22.2%, 28.9% and 38.5%. Negative predictive value (NPV) for each domain was 97.7%, 97.2%, 89.8% and 81.4%. With high sensitivity and NPV of DAIM in motor domain, but low in expressive language domains, using DAIM alone in high-risk infants can detect motor delay well but will miss many infants with expressive language delaye.
