Mother‐Professional Agreement about Developmental Delay in Preschool Children: A Preliminary Report

Abstract

Current practice prescribes that parents play an integral part in the assessment and management of their preschool child with suspected developmental delay. Multidisciplinary assessment aims to enhance parents' understanding of the nature and extent of the delay with a view to promoting parent‐professional agreement about interventions. Serious mismatches between parents and therapists in their judgements of developmental status are potentially important markers of families at risk of sub‐optimal use of intervention services. This study compared mothers' perceptions of their child's development with the results of standardised tests in key domains. A 14 item questionnaire, constructed to measure mothers' perceptions of current and future development, was administered pre‐ and post‐developmental assessment. Preliminary results suggest that mothers recognised the existence of delayed development, but underestimated its severity. Levels of congruence varied with domain. Predictions about future development revealed that most mothers interpreted the delay as temporary. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.