Motor Development of Two‐Year‐Old Typically Developing Native American Children on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II Motor Scale

This study was designed to investigate motor development of two-year-old children of Native American background using the Psychomotor Development Index scores (PDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 2nd ed (BSID-II) Motor Scales and assess the cultural relevancy of this test. Thirty-nine children typically developing, who were two years old and of Native American background participated in this study. The children were divided into two age groups, 24 to 29 months, (n = 21) and 30 to 35 months(n = 18). The BSID-II was administered to all subjects. The PDIs for both age groups were significantly lower than the normative data (p < 0.001) with the younger group scoring lower than the older group. More than one third of the total sample, and more than one half of the younger group, scored at least one standard deviation (SD) below the mean of the test. All children were felt to be developing typically and using a predictive formula, children in this sample would be predicted to have a PDI of 100 by 38.9 months. Results of our study suggest that professionals must recognize the variability in the rate of motor development in some Native American cultures, especially in younger two-year-old children, and should be cautious in interpreting test results.

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