Cultural Adaptation and Validation of Mullen Scales of Early Learning in Taiwanese children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Global Developmental Delay, and Typically Developing Children.
The Taiwan-adapted MSEL is ready for clinic use with local toddlers who have ASD or developmental delay.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Cheong et al. (2022) translated and tweaked the Mullen Scales of Early Learning for Taiwan.
They tested the new MSEL-T in kids with autism, global delay, and typical development.
The team checked if scores stayed stable and truly mapped each child’s skills.
What they found
The Taiwan version gave steady results across time and raters.
It clearly separated children with delays from typically developing peers.
Clinicians can now trust the tool for local assessment.
How this fits with other research
Tsai et al. (2019) already showed the M-CHAT-R/F works in Taiwanese toddlers.
Pou-Leng extends that line by adding a full developmental test, not just a screener.
Strunz et al. (2015) warned that many adapted tools skip rigorous steps.
This study answers that call by following careful translation, back-translation, and local norming.
Why it matters
If you assess Mandarin-speaking toddlers, you now have a validated MSEL.
Use it to confirm red flags raised by screeners like the M-CHAT-R/F-T.
The norms keep you from over-labeling language differences as delays.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) is a standardized comprehensive developmental assessment tool for children aged 0-68 months. However, few Asia-based studies have explored cultural and linguistic adaptations of the MSEL or investigated its psychometric properties in populations with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). AIMS: This study evaluated the reliability and validity of the MSEL-Taiwan version (MSEL-T) for Taiwanese children with ASD, global developmental delay (GDD), and typical development (TD). METHODS AND PROCEDURES: The MSEL items were translated and modified according to the language and culture in Taiwan. In total, 191 children (ASD, 69; GDD, 36; and TD, 86) aged 19-68 months were assessed using the MSEL-T and Peabody Developmental Motor Scales 2 (PDMS-2) at enrollment, followed by the assessments of Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale-Chinese version (VABS-C) at the age of 36 months or later. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: All subscales were verified to have good interrater reliability and internal consistency, and subscale scores indicated moderate to high correlations with PDMS-2 and VABS-C scores. Significant differences in MSEL-T scores were observed between same-aged pairs of children with TD and GDD and between pairs of children with TD and ASD. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The findings provide evidence of validity and reliability of the MSEL-T. And it is suggested that the culturally and linguistically adapted MSEL-T is a good tool for the clinical assessment of children with and without ASD.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2022 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.104158