Encyclopedia of Children's Health | Development Tests

Definition

Development tests are tools that are used to help measure a child's developmental progress from infancy through adolescence.

Purpose

Every child develops at an individual pace. However, development tests may help to discriminate between normal variations in development among children and early signs of a developmental problem. About 16 percent of children have some form of developmental difficulty or delay, and more than 500,000 American children are assessed for early-intervention programs every year.

Development tests have different purposes depending on the age of the child and may be administered under a variety of circumstances. They are designed according to the expected skills of...