Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST), DENVER II

Original Citation – Frankenburg WK, Dodds JB. (1967). The Denver developmental
screening test. J Pediatr. Aug;71(2):181-91. View in PubMed

Contact Information
William K. Frankenburg MD
Department of Pediatrics
University of Colorado Medical Centre
4200 East Ninth Ave
Denver, Colorado 80220
Denver Developmental Materials Inc.
(800) 419-4729

Price & Availability – Can order through instrument website , download order form. Various
training materials available. See website for price details.

Brief Description of Instrument – Screening test, assessing developmental progress for

children 0-6 years of age. Defines the ages at which children accomplish a broad variety of
heterogeneous tasks.

Scale Format – Check boxes, administrator notes, 125 items.

Administration Technique – Interview/skill demonstration. Optimal if test administrator is

trained. DENVER II Technical Manual contains training protocol, available for order online. See
website.

Scoring and Interpretation – Scoring manual available, see website.

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Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST), DENVER II

Factors and Norms – Denver II Technical Manual contains tables depicting the standardization
samples, specific characteristics of the potential items such as number of administrations for the
standardization, number and percent of “refusal” and “no opportunity” scores, subjective ratings,
covariable differences, and reliability. Also included are specifics of sample distribution,
behaviour and speech ratings by age, K statistics, and 25%, 50%, 75% and 90% passing norms
and standard errors of the items for which subgroup norms are clinically significantly different
from the composite norms.

Test-retest Reliability – Testing on two occasions by 2 pairs of trained examiners. On the

same day, the child was tested twice, after 5-10 minutes, and the same child was tested again,
by the same examiners after an interval of 7-10 days. High rate of agreement observed. See
update citation for details.

Inter-rater Reliability – Same child rated by two examiners who did not have knowledge of
how the other was scoring. 59% of items had inter-rater agreement, k >= 0.75, 23% in fair-good
range, k>= 0.40.

Internal Consistency – Items to be included selected on 9-point criteria. See update citation
for details.

Construct Validity – Comparable to a growth curve, no hypothetical construct to measure.

Criterion-Related Validity – Standardized to population norm.

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Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST), DENVER II

Responsive to Change Over Time – Age specific norms provided.

Content & Face Validity – Validity of Denver II established by the precision with which the
ages corresponding to 25%, 50%, 75% and 90% passing for each item and subgroup have
been determined - standardized on more than 2000 children.

Strengths – Norms provided for population and subgroups. Training materials available to
ensure accurate administration.

Limitations – Appropriate referral criteria requires further study, no norms available since
different communities have different criteria for referral.

Notes for Consideration – Norms provided for USA, in original citation, other researchers
have published standards for various regions, check literature.

Updates – Frankenburg, WK., Dodds, J. et al. The DENVER II: A major revision and
re-standardization of the Denver Developmental Screening Test. Pediatrics 1992; 89:91-97 -
major changes include restandardization of population norms, new language and behavioural
items, new method of interpretation. View in PubMed

Published APN Studies using instrument –- Chappell JA, Drogos PA. Evaluation of infant
health care by a nurse practitioner. Pediatrics. 1972 Jun;49(6):871-7.
View in PubMed
Koniak-Griffin D. Developmental assessment with the Denver Developmental Screening Test:
An effective approach for clinical instruction and performance evaluation. Journal of Pediatric
Nursing: Nursing Care of Children and Families. 1987 Apr; 2(2): 102-12. View in PubMed
Thurber F. DiGiamarino L. Development of a model of transitional care for the HIV-positive
child and family. Clinical Nurse Specialist. 1992 Fall; 6(3): 142-6. View in PubMed

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Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST), DENVER II

Related Methods Articles (Not Reviewed) – Glascoe, FP., Byrne et al. Accuracy of the
DENVER II in developmental screening Ped. 1992 June; 89;1221-1225.
Frankenburg WK, Chen JH, Thornton SM. (1988). Common pitfalls in the evaluation of
developmental screening tests. J Pediatr. 1988 Dec;113(6):1110-3.
Greer S, Bauchner H, Zuckerman B (1989). The Denver Developmental Screening Test: how
good is its predictive validity? Dev Med Child Neurol. Dec;31(6):774-81.
Frankenburg WK, Ker CY, Engelke S, Schaefer ES, Thornton SM. Validation of key Denver
Developmental Screening Test items: a preliminary study (1988). J Pediatr. 1988
Apr;112(4):560-6.
K E Barnes and A Stark (1975). The Denver Development Screening Test. A normative study.
Am J Public Health. 1975 April; 65(4): 363–369.

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