Early Intervention Therapy for Children With Delayed Development: Enabling Access in India's Rural Communities

The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) is a standardized client-centred outcome measure. Using a semi-structured interview format, the participant would asked to identify individual goals for occupational performance, related to self-care, productivity and leisure, that the participant has difficulty completing. Participants are asked to identify the 5 most important problems and for each problem/goal they are asked to rate both their performance and satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10 (1= poor performance, low satisfaction; 10 = good performance, high satisfaction). Total scores are calculated by adding the performance or satisfaction scores for all problems and dividing by the number of problems. The average scores (1 to 10) for each scale of the COPM (performance and satisfaction) are used for analysis and comparison between assessments.

The Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-88) is a validated assessment designed specifically for participants with cerebral palsy to evaluate change and development of participant's gross motor function. This is an 88-item assessment with each item scored on a 4-point system (0=does not initiate; 1=initiates; 2=partially completes; 3=completes; and NT=not tested). The GMFM-88 is a validated functional outcome measure, with demonstrated reliability and responsiveness that can be used to evaluate meaningful change in gross motor function over time.

The Functional Independence Measure for Children (wee-FIM) is a standardized and internationally validated assessment that evaluates participant's performance in self-care, sphincter control, transfers, location, communication and social cognition. The wee-FIM is an 18-item measure using a 7-level ordinal scale (1=total assist and 7=complete independence). It is organized into 2 subscales - motor and cognitive. It has been validated in a variety of settings, including in developing countries and has been demonstrated to have transcultural applicability. The wee-FIM has an acceptable responsiveness to demonstrate change over time.

The Communication DEALL (Developmental Eclectic Approach to Language Learning) Developmental Checklist (CDDC) will be used for speech assessment. The CDDC evaluates skills in eight developmental domains including: gross motor, fine motor, activities of daily living, receptive language, expressive language, cognitive skills, social skills and emotional skills. Only the domains for expressive language and receptive language will be used for the assessments. A 5-point scale is used to measure skill development (0= not acquired; 1 acquired but lost; 2 acquired but inconsistently present; 3= acquired and consistently present but only in specific situations; 4=acquired and consistently present across all situations). Within each domain questions are divided into 12 subgroups based on 6-month age groups (i.e., 0-6 months, 6-12 months etc.). This instrument has been validated in urban children, age 0-6 years, in India and has strong inter rater reliability.

The Functional Assessment Checklist for Programming (FACP) is a standardized measure that evaluates a participant's performance in 4 domains: occupational, academic, social, and personal skills. This instrument was developed and validated in India for use in special education. A checklist is used to evaluate the performance or achievement of the participant in each task. Performance is measured on a 5-point scale (0 to 5), where 0 means totally unable and 5 means totally able. The usual evaluation is comprised of 120 items, but the investigators will use an 88 item version. A total percentage score is generated for each participant's overall performance.

The treatment compliance measure will be calculated as a proportion based on the number of therapy sessions achieved by each participant by the number of therapy sessions planned for that participant.

School enrolment will be measured as a proportion of the participants who are enrolled in school by school type (preschool, primary school, special needs school).

The Tirunelveli Early Intervention Caregiver Assessment Tool will be used with the primary caregivers of the participants (i.e. the person who is most involved in the day-to-day care of the child with developmental delay). This instrument will measure 1) family empowerment using the 12-item family sub scale of the Family Empowerment Scale (FES); 2) caregiver burden using the Modified Caregiver Strain Index (MCSI); and, 3) interactions with the participant based on a newly constructed 10-item questionnaire.