Educator-Led Screening to Identify 4-Year-Old Children At-Risk of Motor Delay: A Mixed Methods Convergent Study

Developmental screening can assist in identifying children 'at-risk' of developmental delay. The childcare setting may be the ideal location for screening most children for developmental delay. Therefore, our aim was to determine the feasibility of early childhood educator-led Targeted Motor Control (TMC) screening to identify 4-year-old children 'at-risk' of motor delay.

In this study, conducted in Australia, we used a mixed methods convergent design. Educators attended a 2-h in-person TMC training, which included education, and a demonstration and scoring video that educators watched and scored, respectively. Educators then screened a minimum of four children each aged between 3 years 9 months to 4 years and 5 months, using the TMC. The final TMC that each educator performed was coscored by an experienced TMC-trained physiotherapist. Feasibility of the training and use of the TMC was evaluated using an online survey completed by all educators that covered five feasibility themes: acceptability, demand, practicality, implementation and integration. The survey, comprising closed and open-ended questions, was completed by educators after performing all TMC screening.

Thirteen educators screened four children each and completed the survey. In terms of major findings, merging of quantitative and qualitative data demonstrated convergence for the themes of acceptability, demand and implementation with 100% agreement between educator and physiotherapist scoring on the TMC. However, there was divergence of findings for the feasibility themes of practicality and integration.

It can be concluded that it may be feasible for early childhood educators to perform TMC screening, but we recommend modifications to the training and resources to enable educators to perform screening with greater success.