Introduction: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has an indicator 4.21 that focuses on tracking early childhood development for children 24-59 months of age. A population level, parent questionnaire (ECDI2030) was created to track progress on that indicator; however this initiative was developed to create positive policy changes, versus identifying children with delay and referring them for services. The current research on developmental screening tools demonstrates a clear need to 1) pair parent questionnaires with performance-based tools¹ and 2) validate tools within each country to ensure cultural appropriateness².
Objectives: The purpose of this presentation is to discuss occupational therapy’s role in supporting the validation of developmental screening tools in low resource countries.
Approach: In 2018, the theme of the WFOT conference was how can clinicians in higher resource countries support clinicians located in low resource countries. In carrying on with this effort, this is a call to action for therapist to support each other to validated screening and assessment tools in lower resource countries.
Practice Implications: There has been an overreliance on parent questionnaires and parents have been found to overestimate their child’s abilities³. In low resource countries, there has also been an overreliance on tools validated in the Global North.
Conclusion/Significance to OT Profession: With the increasing trend for occupational therapists to obtain a higher degree, there is a large pool of students in need of research projects. Let’s network at this conference and team up to support our fellow therapists around the world.