DEVELOPMENT OF SYMPTOMATIC BEHAVIOUR SCREENING TOOL (SYMBEST) USING WEB BASED SCREENING APPROACH TO IDENTIFY CHILDREN WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS

Abstract

This research suggests that developmental screening, based on behavioural symptoms, should be promptly addressed and the practice must be introduced in the early childhood education school to reach a justified consensus between the primary care practitioners and the school system.  The focus of this study is to develop a Symptomatic Behaviour Screening Tool (SymBest) for early childhood education (ECE) educators to identify symptomatic behaviours which is an indication of developmental delays among children aged 3 to 4 years old.18 experts were selected from the field of medical, behaviourism and education to validate the constructs and the items and the findings were analysed by the Fuzzy Delphi Method(FDM). SymBestis a fully featured web app with several functions like  instant scoring upon, scores interpretations, overall interpretation, constructs and items in dual languages ( English and Bahasa Melayu) and saving the report in the PDF file. SymBest is also optimised for mobile and personal computer users with Andriod, IOS and PC operating system. This web app tool was developed to encourage Early Childhood Educators to practice early identification, assessment and provide intervention within their capacity. SymBest has potential commercialization for early childhood education centres.