Battelle Developmental Inventory
Descriptive Information
-Title: Battelle Developmental Inventory, Second Edition (BDI-2)
-Date of publication for second edition: 2004. Initial release: 1984
-Author: Jean Newborg
-Source: Available for purchase from the Riverside Publishing Division of Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt (http://www.riversidepublishing.com/products/bdi2/pricing.html)
-Costs: The cost for the complete testing kit with manipulatives is $1282. The cost for the screener kit alone is $405.70 from the website listed above.
-Purpose: The purpose of the inventory is to tract developmental milestones in children. This includes social, communication, motor, adaptive, and cognitive measures. One of the primary uses of the BDI is determining a child’s eligibility for services under IDEA. It is also useful in children up to the age of 8, which represents a wider range of ages than what was previously available prior to the BDI’s release.
-Type of Test: Inventory involving interview, observation, and checklists of important developmental markers.
-Target Population: Patients aged from birth to 7 years and 11 months. No special diagnoses are indicated.
-Time Requirements: The total test time should take 60-90 minutes with an additional 10-30 minutes for proper scoring by the screener.
Test Administration
-Administration: Testing can be done by one screener but it is often completed by more than one screener due to the length of the test. The individual sections tracking specific categories of milestones (for example, the cognitive section) can be completed and scored separately or all of the sections completed together.
-Scoring: The scoring is based on a 0,1,2 point system. 0 points are awarded if the patient did not attempt the task the exam required, 1 point is given if the task is attempted or partially completed, and 2 points are awarded if the task is completed fully and the milestone is reached. Chronological age must be determined for the screener to completely score the patient.
– Type of information resulting from testing: Following scoring the BDI can demonstrate which developmental milestones the child has reached and where the child is deficient (and what category those deficiencies exist in). In addition, the test can reveal if the child is below average or above average in these categories. For example, a 25% delay in a specific testing area can qualify the child for early intervention in the school system.
-Environment for Testing: quiet testing area which allows for space to observe motor tasks as well as space for manipulative items.
-Equipment and Materials Needed: When purchasing the complete test set, the materials provided include specific presentation cards and small items used to test fine motor skills.
– Examiner Qualifications: Test can be completed by various healthcare providers but is most often completed by PT, OT, and/or Speech Therapists. One important qualification is the ability for the examiner to calculate the child’s proper chronological age due to its importance in determining whether or not the child has passed the proper milestones.
-Standardization/normative data: When creating the BDI, 800 children were sampled with 100 (roughly 50 female and 50 male) children from each age group from ages 1 to 8 years old. Gender or race did not produce a difference in the data collected, however, socioeconomic status was not taken into account when establishing norms.
– Evidence of Reliability: The test-retest reliability as well as the interrater reliability is high, ranging from .90 to .99 for both reliability measurements. Of note, test-retest reliability was generally better as the child was of an older age.
-Evidence of Validity: With respect to predictive validity, studies have shown that the BDI has high predictive validity in children over the age of 18 months (per Behl et al, citation below). Content validity is also considered to be high, even prior to the second edition of the BDI being released (Newborg et al, citation below).
Summary Comments:
Strengths/Weaknesses and Clinical Applications: The strengths of the BDI include well established norms, acceptance in determining a child’s need for services, ability to qualify students for assistance through the IDEA act and fairly high predictive validity. In addition, the test’s separate categories allow each individual section to be tested and scored without completing the other parts which results in a potentially shorter administration time and more focused testing. Finally, the test is well established as a good indicator of whether or not a child is eligible for additional services or early interventions. The test can also be administered to a wide range of children. The weaknesses of the BDI include high initial cost of purchasing the test and long administration time if all sections are to be completed. While a shorter version of the test is available (the BDI Screening Test), this version does not have the established reliability and validity of the full BDI and further research is needed. In addition, the BDI did not take socioeconomic status into account when creating norms.
Article Summary:
Webster RI, Majnemer A, Platt RW, Shevell MI. Motor function at school age in children with a preschool diagnosis of developmental language impairment. J Pediatr. 2005;146(1):80-5
This article, which appeared in the Journal of Pediatrics, focused on a study which looked at a group of 70 children with an age of 7.4 that had developmental language impairments. The study looked at how these children would score on the BDI (along with other measures) in order to determine any connection between a language impairment and motor function. The study found that roughly half of the students observed had deficits in the fine motor and gross motor domains of the BDI. However, only 12% of these students were receiving any type of additional therapy to address their motor deficits. The authors point out that this deficit in fine motor skills (determined by the BDI) is of great significance in children with developmental language impairments due to difficulties with writing utensils and other instruments related to the learning of language. This article provides an interesting application of the BDI and shows how versatile the BDI can be due to its multidimensional approach.
Behl DD, Akers JF. The use of the Battelle Developmental Inventory in the prediction of later development. Diagnostique.1996 ;21(4):1–16.
Newborg J, Stock JR, Wnek L, et al. Battelle Developmental Inventory.Allen, Tex: DLM;1988 .
Berls A et al., Child Health and Parental Stress in School-Age Children With a Preschool Diagnosis of Developmental Delay, J Child Neurol January 1, 2008 23:32-38
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