Quantitative Evaluation of Content and Age Concordance Across Developmental Milestone Checklists.
Carol L Wilkinson, M Jackson Wilkinson, Jennifer Lucarelli and 3 others
PMID 31169653WHAT IT FOUND
Four common developmental milestone checklists had low overlap.
Each had at least 170 milestones, but on average only 40 were shared. The same skill often appeared at different ages, so checklist wording alone may not guide referral.
Key findings
01While all four checklists had at least 170 milestones, on average only 40 milestones in each checklist were shared with the other three.
02Only 40 of 728 developmental observations were found across all four checklists, and 17 of those 40 were motor observations.
03Of 130 observations covered by at least three checklists, 35 had target ages that were discordant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only four checklists were analyzed, so other provider or caregiver lists may differ. Three of the four checklists were published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the CDC checklist used overlapping references, so the sample may not represent all available milestone tools. The analysis excluded milestones for children older than 72 months and negative milestones, such as 'Can't hold head steady.' Mapping milestones to observations relied on expert consensus, so some wording choices and age associations were judgment calls. The age concordance method counted adjacent target ages as concordant, so it may understate some age differences.
Declared interests
The authors reported no financial relationships relevant to the article and no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the low overlap as proof that these checklists fail to identify developmental delay. The study compared milestone wording and expected ages across four checklists, not children's outcomes.