Parent ratings of child cognition and language compared with Bayley-III in preterm 3-year-olds

•Parent questionnaires may provide cost-effective tools for screening children's cognitive development.•Parent-based reports of children's non-verbal cognitive development (PARCA3) and verbal development (CDI-III) were tested.•Children (3-year-old) were born late-preterm: their development was independently assessed with Bayley-III cognitive scale.•PARCA3 and CDI-III show concurrent validity with Bayley-III scores.•These parent report measures may be useful for cost-effective screening in children at risk for developmental delay.

BackgroundParent ratings on questionnaires may provide valid and cost-effective tools for screening cognitive development of children at risk of developmental delay.AimsIn this study, we examined the convergent validity of combining parent-based reports of non-verbal cognitive abilities (PARCA3) and verbal abilities (CDI-III) in relation to the Bayley-III cognitive scale in 3-year-olds born late pre-term.MethodsMothers of 185 late-preterm children were asked to complete the PARCA3 and the CDI-III shortly before children reached age three; children were then assessed using the Bayley-III close to their third birthday.ResultsThe two maternal questionnaires were significantly and moderately correlated with the Bayley-III cognitive scores. Together the maternal ratings accounted for 15% of the variance in the Bayley-III cognitive scores, after controlling for other covariates in regression analysis. In particular, the PARCA3 contributed significantly to explain variance in the Bayley-III cognitive scores when controlling for the CDI-III. However, the CDI-III was also independently associated with the Bayley-III cognitive scores.ConclusionsParent ratings of child cognition and language together may provide cost-effective screening of development in “at risk” preschoolers.