Adapting and validating a developmental assessment for chinese infants and toddlers: The ages & stages questionnaires: Inventory

The Chinese government has announced the 2013 Guidelines for developing a national system for early detection of disability among children under 6 years of age. However, given limited resources, challenges exist with developmental measures required in the 2013 Guidelines. In order to meet the needs for a more accurate and cost-efficient measure for developmental assessment, the Ages & Stages Questionnaires: Inventory (ASQ:I) was translated into Simplified Chinese, and validated on a regional sample of 812 Chinese children ages from 1 to 25 months. Results indicated that the Chinese ASQ:I domain scores increased across children’s age. When dividing the sample into seven age intervals, Cronbach’s alpha in each interval ranged from 0.59 to 0.96 across five domains. When using the whole sample for analyses, item expected a posteriori/plausible value (EAP/PV) reliability was above 0.99 in all domains, test-retest reliability using intra-class correlation analyses ranged from 0.95 to 0.99, and the agreement with the concurrent measure ranged from 0.29 to 0.89. Domain scores on the ASQ:I correctly predicted 92–99% of participating children’s disability status. Findings suggested that the Chinese ASQ:I has adequate psychometric properties and thus provides a promising alternative measure for screening and progress monitoring in young children in China. Implications for future research and implementation are discussed.