Accommodating the Bayley-III for motor and/or visual impairment: a comparative pilot study

• Published in: Pediatric physical therapy Vol. 26; no. 1; p. 57
• Main Authors: Visser, Linda, Ruiter, Selma A J, van der Meulen, Bieuwe F, Ruijssenaars, Wied A J J M, Timmerman, Marieke E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 2014
• Subjects: Child; Child Development - physiology; Child, Preschool; Developmental Disabilities - diagnosis; Disabled Children - rehabilitation; Disabled Persons - rehabilitation; Female; Humans; Infant; Male; Physical Therapy Modalities; Pilot Projects; Reproducibility of Results; Visually Impaired Persons - rehabilitation
• ISSN: 1538-005X
• DOI: 10.1097/PEP.0000000000000004

This study assessed the validity and usefulness of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) Low Motor/Vision accommodated version. Accommodations are adaptations to minimize impairment bias, without altering what the test measures. Of the items, 66% have Low Motor accommodations like enlarged materials; 62% have Low Vision accommodations. Using a within-subject design, we tested 19 children with the accommodated and standard Bayley-III, in a randomly counterbalanced order. The children had motor and/or visual impairment and a chronological age between 22 and 90 months. The test administrators completed an evaluation form. A subgroup of children benefited from the accommodations; 2 children obtained a large raw score difference. Test administrators considered the accommodations as practical, and advantageous for most children. The Low Motor/Vision accommodated version seems to validly assess the development of this population. Future, larger-scale research should study whether the accommodations improve the construct validity of the Bayley-III.