Agreement Between Caregivers' Concerns of Children's Developmental Problems and Professional Identification in Taiwan

Ling-Yi Lin; Wen-Hao Yu; Wei-Pin Lin; Chih-Chia Chen; Yi-Fang Tu

doi:10.3389/fped.2022.804427

Agreement Between Caregivers' Concerns of Children's Developmental Problems and Professional Identification in Taiwan

Front Pediatr. 2022 Feb 28:10:804427. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.804427. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ling-Yi Lin^{1

2}, Wen-Hao Yu^{3

4}, Wei-Pin Lin⁵, Chih-Chia Chen³, Yi-Fang Tu^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan.
² Institute of Allied Health Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan.
³ Department of Pediatrics, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan.
⁴ Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan.

Abstract

Objective: Early detection of developmental delays relies on the accuracy of the caregivers' concerns of children's developmental problems. The aim of this study was to investigate the agreement between the caregivers' awareness of children's developmental problems and professional identification.

Methods: Caregivers of 1,963 children (age range: 5-71 months; mean: 38.4 months) younger than 6 years old who were at risk of developmental delays and referred to the center for a comprehensive evaluation were enrolled in this study. Children were identified by a transdisciplinary team including a pediatric neurologist, a pediatric psychiatrist, two psychologists, two occupational therapists, two physical therapists, two speech therapists, a social worker, and a special instructor. A series of standardized developmental assessments were used to identify children with developmental delay. Retrospective chart reviews were conducted on all children to confirm specific developmental disorders.

Results: The caregivers' initial concerns of cognitive, speech/language, emotional/behavioral, and motor and global development showed low agreement with the results of professional identification. The major disagreement was observed in the cognitive domain. Speech/language developmental concern was an important red-flag indicator of cognitive and emotional/behavioral developmental delays. The presence of intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was high in this study. When having caregivers' concerns about speech/language and emotional/behavioral development, the odds of children with autism spectrum disorder was 2.37 and 2.17 times greater than those without autism spectrum disorder, respectively. The presence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was significantly associated with concerns about cognitive and emotional/behavioral developmental delays. Child's age and mothers' level of education were significant indicators for detecting the child's developmental problems.

Conclusion: It is recommended that assessing the cognitive developmental status is essential for all children in the identification process. Practitioners should not overlook caregivers' concern about speech/language and emotional/behavioral development. Transdisciplinary practitioners provide educational guidance to caregivers, especially in the domains of cognitive, speech/language, and emotional/behavioral development.

Keywords: agreement; caregiver's concerns; developmental delay; professional identification; speech delay and global developmental delay.