A Developmental Study for Infant-Toddler Auditory & Communicative Behavioral Checklist

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of this study is to develop an Infant-Toddler Auditory & Communicative Behavioral Checklist (IT-ACBC). Methods: After analyzing several domestic related studies and 11 foreign checklists, 33 key-words were investigated. From the key words, the 72 preliminary items, 6 items for 12 month groups, were developed. 12 month groups were composed of 1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21, 22-23, 24-26 months following general developmental checklist ‘Korean developmental screening test for infant & children’ which has been utilized in clinical setting. This list will be used in order to compare auditory and communicative behavioral ability to the general developmental levels. 72 preliminary items were administered by 114 parents of infants aged from 1-26 months. One point was credited when an infant shows suitable response ‘yes’ for each item. After considering internal consistency reliability, frequency of response to each month group, and questions from respondents, 36 items, 3 items for 12 month groups, were finally extracted from the preliminary items. Results: The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the 36 items was 0.973. Total scores of 36 items revealed statistical significance for developmental differences. The score of the checklist was significantly correlated with ‘LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire-Korean’ score. The test-retest reliability was quite high with r = 0.940. Conclusion: Conclusively, IT-ACBC was developed to evaluate auditory and communicative behavior in typically developing infants and toddlers and can be utilized for checking those behaviors briefly.