Effects of Educating Mothers about the National Child Development Screening Plan on Detecting Abnormal Child Development

Abstract

Background The early diagnosis of developmental disorders and timely interventions profoundly affect the health of children and their families; however, the detection rate of these disorders is much lower than the actual one. The present study aimed to explore effects of educating mothers about the national child development screening plan on detecting abnormal child development. Materials and Methods: This experimental study was a pretest-posttest intervention. Sample size was 100 mothers with a one-year-old child having attended healthcare centers in Najafabad (one of Isfahan's township, Iran). The Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) was used for gathering data. Three educational sessions (each one 45 minutes) were held for mothers of the experimental group. The questionnaires were completed both before and one month after the intervention. Data was analyzed using the SPSS program, version 20.0 software. Results: There wasn't any significant difference in terms of child's gender, mother's occupation and educational status (P>0.05). The mean score of child development from the mothers' perspective in all domains in the experimental group after the intervention was significantly lower than that before the intervention (P < 0.05). Thus, in the experimental group, after the intervention, the mothers could recognize their children's problem better. Conclusion In order that mothers could fill out the ASQ correctly and children with abnormal development could be detected, it is better to provide training in the importance of developmental screening and the early diagnosis of developmental disorders. Moreover, mothers with a one-year-old child should be educated about how to complete the questionnaire.

Persian Abstract

Soleymani, Farzaneh)[ 1 ] ; Shahnazi, H (Shahnazi, Hossein)[ 1 ] ; Hassanzadeh, A (Hassanzadeh, Akbar)[ 2 ]