Acceptability and understanding of the Ages & Stages Questionnaires®, Third Edition, as part of the Healthy Child Programme 2-year health and development review in England: Parent and professional perspectives.
Sally Kendall, Avril Nash, Andreas Braun and 3 others
PMID 30661256WHAT IT FOUND
Parents and professionals generally accepted the ASQ-3 in the 2-year review as useful, but parents could become anxious when items felt like a test, and sites used and scored it inconsistently.
Key findings
01Most parents and health professionals accepted the ASQ-3 as useful and valued working together with parents on the child's development.
02Some parents became anxious because they treated the ASQ-3 as a test, especially when their child could not do an item or when they ticked 'not yet'.
03The ASQ-3 was used very differently across sites, including who completed or scored it, how scores were discussed, and what training health professionals had; this meant a similar parent experience and standardized scores were unlikely.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was purposive and not representative of all parents or health professionals. Only mothers were interviewed, although fathers were invited. The study reports qualitative experiences, not child outcomes. It was treated as a service evaluation rather than a research study requiring ethical approval. At the time, ASQ-3 was not being used to collect data for a public health outcome measure. Training and scoring varied across sites, so findings may reflect local practice rather than a standard process. Four researchers were parents, which the authors thought could affect coding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this paper as showing that the ASQ-3 accurately detects developmental delay or that its scores are equivalent across England. It reports parents' and professionals' experiences, and it found wide variation in use, training and scoring.