Limitation of developmental test to measure functional independence of children: Relationship between the Japanese version of WeeFIM II® and KSPD.
Mizuki Sugiyama, Sayaka Aoki, Nobuyuki Kawate and 1 others
PMID 36565075WHAT IT FOUND
Developmental test scores do not reliably predict how much daily support a child needs.
For children under two, the link is negligible for most tasks. Only for older children does the test correlate moderately with independence, and even then, it fails to fully explain required support.
Key findings
01Partial correlations between developmental test scores and daily support needs fell mostly in the low to moderate range, indicating that required support is not fully explained by developmental level.
02For children under two, developmental test scores showed negligible correlation with toileting and excretion control items, suggesting the test provides little information about support needs for these skills in very young children.
03The relationship between functional independence and developmental test scores strengthened as children got older, indicating the test may be more useful for estimating independence in older children than in toddlers.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show how these relationships change over time within individual children. The KSPD does not provide a Postural-Motor developmental age for children aged four or older, so the relationship between motor development and functional independence could not be examined for the oldest group. The participants were children referred for suspected developmental delay, so the results may not generalize to typically developing children or those with less severe needs. The WeeFIM II is a measure of support required for specific tasks, not an overall measure of total support needs or skill acquisition.
Declared interests
The study was supported by non-U.S. government funding. No specific conflicts of interest regarding commercial sponsors or author financial ties were detailed in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a child with a higher developmental age on a test like the KSPD will necessarily need less support for daily tasks. The correlations are low to moderate, meaning a child with similar test scores may still require significantly different levels of assistance depending on their specific functional independence.