EDUCATORS Screening and Stimulation of Child Development

TEDI gathers information on development based on the Survey of Well-Being of Young Children (SWYC) instrument to help professionals in making decisions regarding child behavior and development, taking into account the family context. This version of the app is intended for educators, education professionals who deal directly with young children, social care professionals and mid-level or technical health professionals, but who are NOT involved with direct assistance to children.

The SWYC is an open access instrument that was adapted into Brazilian Portuguese in 2016 by researchers from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and has evidence of validity and reliability for use with Brazilian children. . All questionnaires that make up SWYC were incorporated into TEDI and allow screening for developmental delays; behavioral problems, Social Interaction; parents' concern with the child's development and behavior; risk factors in the family context (abuse of alcohol and drugs, food insecurity, maternal depression and family conflicts). The questionnaire for screening developmental delays consists of 54 skills expected for children aged 1 to 65 months. Vignettes were created illustrating each of the items and were incorporated into the application, facilitating the understanding of parents and professionals.

TEDI automatically selects the questionnaires to be used based on the child's age, directing the user to a list of appropriate questionnaires for each age group. The calculation of the score in each questionnaire and the classification of the child were automated, based on the SWYC norms. The results of each assessment are stored on the user's device, allowing for serial assessments and the sharing of results with the family via a pdf. TEDI also provides 15 animated videos of 3-4 minutes with activities and games to support professionals in guiding parents on how to encourage the development of children at each age. These videos can be shared with caregivers at the time of the assessment or through a link to Youtube.

The application has been developed by a team of researchers from UFMG and UFSC since 2016, following the creation stages and concepts of mHealth applications. Meetings were held with experts in the field of child development and public health, as well as usability tests with 26 health professionals. The reliability of the 54 items of the Development Milestones questionnaire using the vignettes was verified through a test-retest with 100 caregivers of children aged 1 to 65 months. At each stage, the team of researchers from UFMG, UFSC and UFU carried out tests and verifications of the operation and adjustments aimed at improving and securing the use of the application.

In this way, we believe that we are providing an important tool to encourage and support the assessment of child development by professionals who deal with children and their families.

The application was developed with support from the Maria Cecília Souto Vidigal Foundation. The software was developed by the company BUTEC and the animations by the company Teclatricks.