Development of a self care skills scale for children with developmental disorders: A Pilot Study.

Aims/Objectives: Self care skills are an integral component of a child's global development. There are few tools available for assessment of these skills for children with different diagnosis with respect to Indian population. Hence this study aims to develop a scale for assessing self care skills in developmental^ delayed children and establish its reliability and validity. Methods: Parents of 110 typically developing and developmentally delayed children aged between 2-8 years were administered the 55 item scale categorized under seven components through an interview. Results: Findings suggest all items characterized as components of self care skills in children with delay. All skills except bathing subcomponent were noted to be significantly differentiating between typically developing and developmentally delayed children. Reliability of the overall scale was .954. Split half reliability coefficient of the overall scale was .845. Construct and content validity were found to be adequate. Conclusion: This scale was found to be reliable and had a good power of discrimination. Further research with a larger national sample and administration with specific disabilities group is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]