When a child’s development concerns parents or professionals, use the CDI to obtain the parent’s detailed report of the child’s present skills and possible problems and answer questions about a child’s school readiness.

Parents complete the 300 item questionnaire at home or in your office and report their observations of the child’s behavior. It measures the child’s present development in eight areas: social, self-help, gross motor, fine motor, expressive language, language comprehension, letters, and numbers. It also inlcudes a General Development Scale and 30 items to identify parent’s concerns about their child’s health and growth, vision and hearing, development and behavior.

Originally used for both screening and assessment, the CDI has since been determined too long for groups of presumably “normal” children (for screening, see the CDR - Parent Questionnaire).

CDI reports are closely related to test results and teachers’ observations. They also relate to school readiness and chilren’s placement in early childhood special education.

THE AUTHOR: Harold Ireton, Ph.D., is a developmental psychologist with over thirty years of experience. His special interests are in the development of young children, their parents and the people who work with them.

He is the author of the Child Development tools, three books on screening and assessment and numerous articles.