Battelle Developmental Inventory 3rd Edition

Overview: 

As children develop, they master a series of skills across communication, social-emotional, adaptive, motor, and cognitive domains. The Battelle Developmental Inventory 3rd Edition is a tool that clinicians may use for children birth - 7;11 to evaluate children's mastery of developmental milestones across these important areas.  The newest version of the BDI also includes an academic survey that measures foundational literacy and mathematics skills in children 3;6 to 7;11.

Purposes of the BDI-3: 

The BDI may be used to: 

• Assess developmental milestones

• Supports eligibility determinations for special education

• Assists clinicians to develop appropriate goals to guide interventions

• Evaluate progress over time

Development and Standardization: 

The BDI-3 meets standards for validity and reliability, with reliability evaluations indicating a high level of measurement precision in terms of internal consistency, stability over time, and consistency among scorers. It was standardized with 283 clinical examiners and 2,500 children (0-7;11) across 20 age groups, with at least 125 children representing each age group. A normative sample of 1,000 bilingual children was also evaluated across the 20 age groups to ensure that the tool accounted for language differences among Spanish-speaking children. Additionally, 234 children with autism, cognitive delay, motor delay, premature birth, speech and language delay, and developmental delay were included during the standardization process,

Administration Procedures: 

The BDI can be flexibly administered using a variety of formats, including structured play-based interactions using child-friendly manipulatives, naturalistic observations within familiar environments, and/or interviews with parents and caregivers. Clinicians may choose to address all or some domains during the evaluation depending on the presenting symptoms. 

Examiners may conduct an initial BDI-3 screening to indicate if full assessment is warranted. Calculated screening scores may be compared to Cut Scores, which indicate -1.0 SD, -1.5 SD, and -2.0 SD range limits. 

All BDI-3 scoring is completed through the online Riverside Score portal, which allows clinicians to easily enter raw scores, assessment data, and test session observations for ease of scoring and monitoring. This digitized system also allows clinicians to view and print a variety of reports and graphs, which may be shared with parents and teachers to illustrate challenges, progress, etc.  

Strengths / Weaknesses: 

• Strengths: The BDI-3 accounts for the full early childhood spectrum of ages, so can be used for even young children. The BDI also allows for flexibility with both administration format and selection of testing domains, which creates a more customized assessment experience than other instruments. Additionally, the screening component enables instructors, clinicians, and others to evaluate a large group of children and to identify those who may be at risk for developmental delays. The BDI also allows examiners to make specific adaptations for children with disabilities when needed. 

• Weaknesses: The BDI-3 test administration time is long when tests for all domains are administered (35-40 minutes). 

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