Preschool Developmental Testing in Prediction of School Problems

Sixty-five children from lower income families, first evaluated with the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale at age 4 to 6 years, were followed up 3 years later to determine how well preschool test results could predict later school problems. Eighty-eight per cent of children with Abnormal DDSTs, 66% of children with Questionable DDSTs, and 32% of children with Normal DDSTs showed later school problems. Combining DDST and IQ results did not change the total number of children who would be misclassified, but the type of misclassification changed. When developmental screening is used to identify children at risk for developing school problems, children with Questionable findings should be referred for further evaluation along with those with Abnormal findings since a high percentage of Questionables develop school problems despite adequate intelligence.