Validation of Home Screening Questionnaire (HSQ) against Home Observation for the Measurement of Environment (HOME).

This study was done to validate the screening tool Home Screening Questionnaire (HSQ) against the gold standard Home Observation for the Measurement of Environment (HOME) inventory, using diagnostic test evaluation. Both HOME inventory and HSQ were administered by separate observers, with children less than 3 years of age, among 200 families belonging to 14 anganwadi areas. There was a high sensitivity of 83 and a high specificity of 82 observed for a cutoff point of less than or equal to 19 on HSQ against HOME Inventory as Gold Standard, as was also observed in the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. The likelihood ratio (LR) for positive test was 4.6 (95 % CI, 3.3 to 6.9) which implies that the families with poor home environment are 4.6 times more likely to have the HSQ score less than or equal to 19 as compared to normal families. The results of this study imply that we can confidently apply the HSQ in developmental evaluation clinics and reserve HOME inventory for research purposes.

Developmental delay and disability among under--5 children in a rural ICDS block.

We conducted this study to assess the prevalence of developmental delay, deformity and disability among 0-5 age group childrenn in Pattanakkad rural ICDS block, selected at random from among the ICDS blocks in Alappuzha District, Kerala, India. Of 12520 children upto 5 years in this block, there were a total of 311 children with developmental delay, deviation, deformity or disability giving a prevalence of 2.5 % (95 % CI, 2.22 to 2.77). The prevalence of developmental disabilities up to 2 years was 2.31 (95 % CI, 1.91 to .71) and from 2 to 5 years 2.62 % (95 % CI, 2.25 to 2.99). The prevalence obtained in the study has important policy implications for identifying childhood disabilities in the community.

CDC Kerala 5: Developmental therapy clinic experience--use of Child Development Centre grading for motor milestones.

OBJECTIVES: To document the experiences of the intervention given to children who attended the developmental therapy clinic of Child Development Centre (CDC) Kerala, a specialized clinic for providing developmental intervention/therapy for babies less than two years with developmental delay/disability. METHODS: All the babies referred to this speciality clinic from developmental screening/evaluation clinics of CDC were registered in the clinic and re-evaluation was done using CDC grading for head holding, sitting, standing, Amiel Tison passive angles, and Trivandrum Developmental Screening Chart (TDSC) 0-2 y. RESULTS: Out of a total of 600 consecutive babies below 2 y with developmental delay/disability referred to developmental therapy clinic, on comparing the test results at enrollment and after 6 mo of intervention, a statistically significant reduction was observed (i) in the 2-4 mo age group with regard to abnormal TDSC (25.5%), (ii) in the 4-8 mo age group with regard to abnormal head holding grade (87.1%) and abnormal TDSC (19.4%), (iii) in the 8-12 mo age group, with regard to abnormal sitting grade (71.7%) and (iv) in the above 12 mo age group with regard to abnormal sitting grade (35.3%) and abnormal standing grade (78.8%). CONCLUSIONS: The experience of organizing the developmental intervention/therapy clinic at CDC Kerala has shown that therapy services by developmental therapists in a centre and supportive therapy by mother at home is useful in improving the developmental status of children with developmental delay.