Infant Research Centre develop means to test cognitive delay

Researchers from the Infant Research Centre, UCC have shown that a 15-minute touchscreen tablet-based assessment can screen young children for cognitive delay.

Results published last week in the Archives of Disease in Childhood showed that young children aged 18-24 months completed the Babyscreen puzzle in a predictable way, with their scores increasing with age and correlating with their ability on formal testing.

Infant Research Centre: UCC’s tablet-based assessment

This application can be used to pick out those children at risk of cognitive delay and who should have a referral for developmental assessment.

Traditionally cognitive testing in very young children is assessed based on their developmental progress, and milestones reached.

Tests such as Bayley’s Scales, (internationally recognised as the gold standard for assessment of cognitive development for infants from 1 to 42 months) were developed in the 1950s and were based on observation of children’s play and development.

This widely-used method, which measures cognitive ability, language, social-emotional, motor, and adaptive behaviour, takes over an hour to complete with the infant and relies heavily on the child’s ability to understand verbal instructions.

As a result, an infant with poor or late-developing language skills, or a child whose mother tongue is not English will perform poorly.

As this method is time-consuming and expensive, many children do not have access to early learning assessments, unless they are identified as being high risk.

Prof. Deirdre Murray, Prof of Paediatrics and principal investigator with INFANT Research Centre, UCC today commented;

“Up to now, it has been difficult to accurately assess infant development without the use of language to explain and to illicit responses from these young children across a number of tests. Testing memory, problem-solving, processing of information, and cognitive ability to date has always required verbal interaction.

This new technology which can be deployed on a tablet interface, and developed in collaboration with Hello Games, Guildford, UK can accurately assess infant thinking skills without language, using technology to test and measure across key areas in just 15 minutes,”

The INFANT Research Centre UCC, Science Foundation Ireland, Hello Games, and the Health Research Board have all provided funding to develop this technology, which will be ready for use by General Practitioners, Paediatricians, and Psychologists by early next year.

The app has already been 4 years in development and has been piloted to test cognitive skills in trials with over 300 infants.

For more information please contact Tara O’Leary Communications Infant Research Centre, UCC on 0858077849 or email tara.oleary@ucc.ie. For more information on Infant Research Centre UCC, please visit our website on https://www.infantcentre.ie/.

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