The Bayley-III-NL special needs addition
| PhD ceremony: | Ms L. (Linda) Visser |
| When: | January 09, 2014 |
| Start: | 14:30 |
| Supervisor: | prof. dr. A.J.J.M. Ruijssenaars |
| Co-supervisors: | prof. dr. M.E. (Marieke) Timmerman, dr. S.A.J. Ruiter |
| Where: | Academy building RUG |
| Faculty: | Behavioural and Social Sciences |
Most children develop according to expectations in their first
few years of life. In some cases, however, early development is not
trouble-free. Appropriate developmental assessment is then
important to adjust early intervention to the developmental level
of the child.
A widely-used instrument for developmental assessment is the
Bayley-III-NL. This instrument appears to be unsuitable in many
cases of cognitive and/or physical impairment. The test materials
are not adjusted to the abilities of children in this target group
and the test results do not yield sufficient information as a basis
for the intervention.
This dissertation describes the results of a research project,
funded by ZonMw, into the Special Needs Addition (SNA) to the
Bayley-III-NL. The aim of the SNA is to solve the described
problems related to the Bayley-III-NL. The SNA consists of the Low
Motor/Vision version for children with motor and/or visual
impairment, the Low Verbal version for children with
speech/language impairment, and the dynamic version for obtaining a
more intervention-oriented assessment.
The results show that the SNA-version enhances the suitability of
the Bayley-III-NL for children with specific impairments and that
the dynamic version has substantial added clinical value. On the
basis of these results, the Bayley-III-NL-SNA will be published
mid-2014. The instrument will thus actually be used in early
intervention practice in the Netherlands to assess the development
of children with a cognitive and/or physical impairment more
validly than was possible up to now.