Preschool children’s communication, motor and social development: Parents’ and educators’ concerns

Abstract

Purpose: During early childhood, it is important to identify which children require intervention before they face the increased demands of school. This study aimed to: (1) compare parents’ and educators’ concerns, (2) examine inter-rater reliability between parents’ and educators’ concerns and (3) determine the group difference between level of concern and children’s performance on clinical testing.

Method: Parents and educators of 1205 4- to 5-year-old children in the Sound Start Study completed the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status. Children whose parents/educators were concerned about speech and language underwent direct assessment measuring speech accuracy (n = 275), receptive vocabulary (n = 131) and language (n = 274).

Result: More parents/educators were concerned about children’s speech and expressive language, than behaviour, social–emotional, school readiness, receptive language, self-help, fine motor and gross motor skills. Parents’ and educators’ responses were significantly correlated (except gross motor). Parents’ and educators’ level of concern about expressive speech and language was significantly correlated with speech accuracy on direct assessment. Educators’ level of concern was significantly correlated with a screening measure of language. Scores on a test of receptive vocabulary significantly differed between those with concern and those without.

Conclusion: Children’s communication skills concerned more parents and educators than other aspects of development and these concerns generally aligned with clinical testing.

Keywords:

• children
• development
• communication
• speech
• language
• behaviour
• fine motor
• gross motor
• school readiness
• parents
• teachers
• educators
• early childhood
• screening

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the following sources: Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP130102545, New South Wales Department of Education, and the Charles Sturt University Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE). The authors thank Charlotte Howland and Felicity McKellar for data support.

Note

Notes

1. The term parent is used within this paper to refer to a child’s caregiver.