Neurodevelopmental Assessment at 2 Years: Feasibility and Validity of Remote Touch Screen-Based Assessment

To evaluate the feasibility and validity of the tablet-based application CogniTOT for remote assessment of cognitive function.

An ongoing follow-up study with children born < 32 weeks of gestational age uses Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ). Parents were further invited to remote CogniTOT assessment and to fill in the Non-Verbal Cognitive Scale (NVC) of the parental questionnaire Parent Report of Children's Abilities Revised (PARCA-R) at 2 years of age. Factors influencing successful CogniTOT completion were examined. Construct validity was explored by comparing the preterm-born group with term-born controls. To ensure concurrent validity, CogniTOT scores were compared to NVC PARCA-R.

Thirty-two out of 77 invited preterm children completed CogniTOT along with 12 term-born children. Median scores did not differ between groups (p = 0.51). Difficulties in completion were frequent and both technical and interpersonal. There was no correlation between NVC PARCA-R and CogniTOT scores (correlation coefficient 0.079, p = 0.65). The correlation between NVC PARCA-R and ASQ was moderate (correlation coefficient 0.535, p < 0.001).

Remote assessment using a tablet-based task is challenging and did not correlate with parental report. Technical advances may make this feasible for large-scale assessment.