TITLE:
Screening Measures Used in Child Daycare Centers: A 15-Years Systematic Review
AUTHORS:
Alberto Filgueiras, Pedro Pires, J. Landeira-Fernandez
KEYWORDS:
Childcare, Screening, Cognition, Preschoolers, Early Childhood
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.19,
December
5,
2014
ABSTRACT: Childcare
programs can be expensive for developing countries. To measure the efficiency
of these interventions in early childhood cognitive outcomes, screening
measures are proposed in this article. A systematic review was conducted to
answer two questions: which are the empirical evidence available in the
literature to support using psychological screening measures in child daycare
centers; and if those measures can be adopted as cost-effective assessment
policies for children’s cognition. A total of 109 articles were retrieved. After
the exclusion criteria, 18 articles remained. Ten screening measures were
detected in the literature. Among those ten, three instruments were used both
in child daycare centers and as assessment policies. Psychometric properties
and adequacy of these measures to childcare programs are considered. Using
Brazil as an example, the present article also discusses the challenges of
adopting evidence-based practices in childcare policies in developing
countries.