A.R.I.C.D. Association of Research in Infant and Child Development

Your help is needed!

ARICD is in an exciting period of development with both Phase 1 of the GMDS Re-standardisation and the Chinese validation project progressing well.

One of the aims in Phase 1 of the GMDS re-standardisation was to establish current thinking regarding child development and its assessment. ARICD has established a project board to guide the research. Prof Louise Stroud and her team in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa carried out a thorough systematic review of the available literature on child development and the emerging themes relating to assessment. An “Avenues of learning “ workshop was held in London in October 2010, which provided a range of data in response to questions. A critical analysis of the literature and workshop data confirmed the six areas underpinning the Griffiths Scales (namely locomotor, personal-social, language, eye and hand co-ordination, performance and practical reasoning) remained the important areas for consideration. Other aspects of child development were also identified for further consideration.

In April, Prof Stroud, Rosemary O’Connell and I conducted semi-structured interviews with a number of child development experts in different fields. From these interviews a number of themes have emerged. The next step is to establish a group of members/GMDS users who, as our constituents, will participate in a series of short electronic questionnaires to add data to the results of phase 1. This information will guide the design and description of the next Phase on the Re-standardisation.

If you would be willing to participate in the questionnaire group, please write to me at: aricd@mail.com

I hope that as many of you as possible will be able to join us in the collection of valuable data.

With very best wishes to you all,

Elizabeth Green, ARICD President.

May 2011