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Screening of developmental disorders in five-year-olds using the FTF (Five to Fifteen) questionnaire: a validation study

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry volume 13, pages iii31–iii38 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

The study examined the validity of the Five to Fifteen (FTF) questionnaire in detecting developmental disorders in five-year-old children. A pilot study (N=70) was first undertaken to try out a translation of the FTF into Finnish. Subsequently, FTF questionnaires were mailed to parents of all five-year-old children from specified health-care districts in Vantaa, Finland. A total of 769 questionnaires (60%) were completed and returned. Children scoring above a cut-off value in any domain were considered at risk for having developmental disorders (the Risk Group; N=90). A Control Group was formed by randomly selecting 30 children who did not score above the threshold value in any domain. The children from the Risk Group and the Control Group were called to individual neuropsychological assessments. All invited children attended the assessments. The parts of the FTF that assess fine motor skills, executive functions (including attention and impulsivity), perception, memory, and language were used for this study. The external criterion measure was the NEPSY, a neuropsychological assessment instrument.

Results demonstrated that the five FTF Domain Scores used in this study correlated significantly with the corresponding NEPSY Domain Scores. Second, the Risk Group obtained significantly poorer scores on the NEPSY than the Control Group. Third, on a cross-tabulation a very high rate of positive hits (93 %) was obtained as well as a very low rate of misses (7 %), indicating a very good sensitivity. However, there were a large percentage of false positives (63 %), indicating that specificity was not so good. Evidently, parents may report concerns related to the young child’s development even when neuropsychological assessments do not indicate significant disorders. On the whole, the findings supported the validity of the FTF as a developmental screening instrument.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institution of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, 20500, Turku, Finland

    Marit Korkman

  2. Helsinki University Central Hospital, Jorvi Hospital, Espoo, Finland

    Marjatta Jaakkola

  3. Myyrmäki Health Center, City of Vantaa, Finland

    Anne Ahlroth

  4. Rehabilitation Center Larmis, Helsinki, Finland

    Aino-Elina Pesonen

  5. City of Helsinki Health, Department Child Psychiatric Evaluation Unit, Helsinki, Finland

    Merja-Maaria Turunen

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  1. Marit Korkman
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  2. Marjatta Jaakkola
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  4. Aino-Elina Pesonen
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  5. Merja-Maaria Turunen
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Korkman, M., Jaakkola, M., Ahlroth, A. et al. Screening of developmental disorders in five-year-olds using the FTF (Five to Fifteen) questionnaire: a validation study. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 13 (Suppl 3), iii31–iii38 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-004-3005-z

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Key words

  • screening
  • developmental disorders
  • ADHD
  • neuropsychological assessment
  • NEPSY