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Published on: June 20, 2020
Development of a Screening Instrument to Improve Access to Follow-Up Care for Children With Complex Medical
Sandra Fucile1, Lorraine Smith2, Andrea Swizter3
1Sandra Fucile, PhD, OT Reg (Ont), is Assistant Professor, School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; sandra.fucile@queensu.ca.
Importance:
Telerehabilitation helps overcome barriers to neonatal follow-up care for children with complex medical conditions; however, existing developmental assessment tools are not suitable for this virtual medium.
Objective:
To create the Virtually Guided Infant Developmental Abilities (VIDA) screening tool, intended for children ages 1-18 mo.
Design:
The VIDA screening tool was developed using the Best Practices for Developing and Validating Scales for Health, Social, and Behavioral Research framework. Phase 1 involved defining developmental domains, generating items via a literature scoping review, and assessing content validity through a modified Delphi survey. Phase 2 included a pilot test to ensure the tool's clarity and feasibility.
Setting:
The VIDA screening tool was developed at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in a tertiary care setting.
Participants:
In Phase 1, which focused on content validity, a modified Delphi survey technique was undertaken with a total of 12 experts (10 occupational therapists, one physiotherapist, and one neonatologist). In Phase 2, which focused on scale development, a pilot test study was conducted with two occupational therapists and three families whose children necessitated neonatal follow-up care.
Results:
The final VIDA screening tool includes 81 items that assess a child's gross motor, fine motor, self-care, and social communication and cognitive skills through prompted responses or parent-reported observations.
Conclusions And Relevance:
The VIDA screening tool was developed to increase accessibility to neonatal follow-up care for children with complex medical conditions. The tool consists of observations of a child's developmental abilities, made through a virtual platform, that can be used by most health professionals to identify children who need further developmental evaluations. Plain-Language Summary: The authors developed the Virtually Guided Infant Developmental Abilities (VIDA) screening tool to address the lack of virtual developmental assessments. It was created in accordance with the Best Practices for Developing and Validating Scales for Health, Social, and Behavioral Research framework. Phase 1 focused on item development and content validity and involved a modified Delphi survey administered to 12 health professional experts, including occupational therapists, a physiotherapist, and a neonatologist. Phase 2 involved scale development through a pilot test with two occupational therapists and three families whose children required neonatal follow-up care. The finalized VIDA tool includes two parts: Part 1 entails an intake form to gather information on parents' concerns about their children's development, and Part 2 includes 81 items that assess gross motor, fine motor, self-care, and social communication and cognitive skills through parent-reported observations or prompted responses. Designed for use by most health professionals, the VIDA tool improves accessibility to follow-up care by enabling virtual evaluations of developmental abilities, thereby helping identify children who need in-depth developmental assessments. The VIDA screening tool offers occupational therapists a promising approach to support early developmental monitoring of high-risk infants.
