Gender differences of children's developmental trajectory from 6 to 60 months in the Taiwan Birth Cohort Pilot Study.
Check the boy or girl column on the TBCS 60-month scale, not the overall one.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lung et al. (2011) tracked kids from 6 to 60 months using the Taiwan Birth Cohort Scale. They wanted to know if boys and girls follow the same growth path.
The team checked if the 60-month scale gave steady scores over time. They also split results by gender to spot any gaps.
What they found
The scale held up: good reliability and validity for the whole group. Yet girls pulled ahead in fine motor, language, and social skills.
Without separate norms, a boy with typical male scores could look delayed.
How this fits with other research
Bardid et al. (2013) extends this picture. Their preschool motor program helped girls more than boys in ball skills. Together the papers show gender gaps are real in both tests and training.
Harel-Gadassi et al. (2018) tackled age correction for preterm babies on the Mullen. Like For-Wey, they prove that small scoring tweaks stop kids from being mis-labelled.
Saether et al. (2013) and Heyrman et al. (2011) did similar reliability work on trunk scales for cerebral palsy. Their methods match For-Wey’s, but the TBCS brings gender norms to the neurotypical preschool crowd.
Why it matters
If you use the TBCS 60-month scale, always check the gender norms before you tell parents a child is behind. A boy who looks delayed against the overall chart may sit right in the male average. Flip the page to the right column and you avoid false alarms and missed girls who truly need help.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The parental report instrument is the most efficient developmental detection method and has shown high validity with professional assessment instruments. The reliability and validity of the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study (TBCS) 6-, 18- and 36-month scales have already been established. In this study, the reliability and validity of the 60-month scale was tested. The gender differences in children's longitudinal gross motor, fine motor, language and social development were also investigated. Using the dataset from the Taiwan Birth Cohort Pilot Study (TBCS-p), 2048 infants were followed up when they were 6-, 18-, 36- and 60-month-old. At the final stage, 1620 children were followed up. Development of the children was measured using the TBCS 6-, 18-, 36-, and 60-month developmental scales. The reconstructed TBCS 60-month scale yielded 16 items measuring children's development in the four dimensions of gross motor, fine motor, language and social. The scale yielded an internal consistency of 0.39-0.71. Structural equation modeling also showed good construct and predictive validity, in that the 6-, 18-, and 36-month scales were predictive of the 60-month scale. No gender differences between the gross motor dimension was found. Gender had an effect on the fine motor dimension at 36 and 60 months, language dimension at 36 months, and social dimension at 18, 36 and 60 months. Gender had a transient effect in language development and social development a continuous effect from 18 to 60 months. Thus different gender norms may need to be established to prevent misdiagnosis. The TBCS scale is a valid and reliable developmental screening instrument that can be used in continuous surveillance of children's development in community and clinical settings from 6 months to 5 years of age.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.09.004