Introduction:

In the early detection of development problems, it is important to use screening instruments.

Objective:

To describe the design of an instrument for the screening of psychomotor development's problems in children under six years old.

Methods:

Development research conducted in Havana, in healthy children under six years old (n= 1 333). The design of instrument was based on the estimation of the ages of compliance related to a set of development guidelines. The 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles (± 95% CI) of the compliance age of 80 psychomotor development patterns were estimated by means of a logistic regression with inverse transformation. The 50th percentile was compared with that of other similar tests. The instrument was designed with a graphical method with Microsoft Excel 2010 program.

Results:

All percentiles were estimated in 93.8% of the selected guidelines; in three of them it was not possible to obtain the 25th percentile, the 50th or both, and in two cases they were fulfilled by all the children, so their behavior was not according to a "maturational" model. In the comparisons with respect to foreign tests, the patterns fulfilled at similar and advanced ages prevailed.

Conclusions:

The instrument designed is a useful tool for the investigation of psychomotor development problems in early childhood, both in care practice and epidemiological studies, and their application in these scenarios contributes to raising the quality of pediatric care.

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