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Type of Measure: The Developmental Milestones Question Set (SWYC Milestones) is one component of the Survey of Wellbeing of Young Children (SWYC) and is a parent-report measure containing 10-items that gauge child motor, language, and social/cognitive development. Items for the SWYC Milestones were designed to capture observable aspects of these domains that parents could remember reliably. Each indicator is of varying difficulty and was included to reflect a wide range of children’s skills at every age. “Easier” items were included in order to increase the odds of detecting children with developmental delays. Children who are not yet able to perform these “easier” items are at risk for delay.

Target Population: Children 2 - 65 months of age

Measurement properties and previous use: summarized from the User Manual (p.77) The developers of the SWYC Milestones recruited a sample of parents from different primary care practices and then determined the accuracy with which the SWYC Milestones detected criterion (e.g. parents’ reports of diagnoses) and the accuracy with which another evidence-based screening tool detected the same criterion. The developers specifically tested the SWYC Milestones forms’ concurrent validity relative to the Ages & States Questionnaire, 3rd Edition (ASQ-3) and parents’ reports of developmental diagnoses.

With the exception of the 2-month form, the SWYC Milestones scores correlated well with the ASQ-3, with correlations ranging from moderate to large (i.e., Pearson correlations between 0.40 to 0.70). Furthermore, SWYC Milestones scores detected parents’ reports of developmental delays and disorders with a level of accuracy that is comparable to other evidence-based screening instruments. The overall sensitivity was 76% and specificity was 77%. The 2- and 60-month forms were somewhat less reliable in predicting parents’ reports of diagnoses and ASQ scores. For the 2-month form, this is most likely because developmental progress is happening so fast and with such variability during this period that measuring these changes over monthly increments rather than over days is not precise enough. For the 60-month form, we suspect that we created too few items appropriate for older children; this weakness will be corrected with further research.

Languages: English, Spanish, Burmese, Nepali, and Portuguese (see Translations)

Authors and Citation: Sheldrick, R. C., & Perrin, E. C. (2013). Evidence-based milestones for surveillance of cognitive, language, and motor development. Academic pediatrics, 13(6), 577-586.

Licence: All survey components are freely available for use, per the Survey of Wellbeing of Children’s FAQ website. It cannot be modified without expressed permission of the authors. If you are interested in translating the SWYC into a new language or administering it in a way for which the downloadable forms are not appropriate, please contact Kate Mattern at: theswyc@gmail.com.

Link to measure: Developmental Milestones Question Set (SWYC Milestones)

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