A Screening Checklist for Play Development in Kannada

Abstract

Background: Unlike extensive research on the other domains of early childhood assessment, relatively little activity has occurred in the area of play assessment. Play can serve as a valuable tool for assessment and intervention in children with developmental delay. The development of culturally and linguistically appropriate tool is necessary for accurate assessment of a child’s development. Objective: The present study aimed at developing a screening checklist for play development in Kannada for children between 0-4 yearsand to estimate developmental play age as a function of chronological age. Methods and Materials: Present developed checklist consists of 20 yes-no questions which taps play developmental milestones. The checklist was administered on 200 mothers to check the reliability of the questions. The data was analyzed descriptively by calculating the percentage of yes-no responses for all 20 questions. Results: Results suggest that each question had good agreement (>90%), indicating that the questions chosen for checklist provides a reliable baseline for the developmental play skills of children up to 4 years. The developed checklist can be used by pre-school teachers to track play development which helps in early identification of possible indication of developmental delay. Key words: Play development, screening checklist, Kannada checklist