Reliability of the modified Paediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory, Dutch version (PEDI-NL) for children with cerebral palsy and cerebral visual impairment.
The adapted PEDI-NL keeps a steady score for children who have both cerebral palsy and cerebral visual impairment.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The Dutch team tweaked the PEDI-NL for kids who have both cerebral palsy and cerebral visual impairment. They tested the children years. Two raters watched each child and scored the same 197 items on self-care, mobility, and social function.
What they found
Reliability numbers were strong. ICC topped 0.87 and Cronbach’s alpha beat 0.88 for every domain. The adapted form gives the same score no matter who fills it out.
How this fits with other research
Vitiello et al. (2016) showed that a short walk can wreck balance in teens with unilateral CP. Their bad news pairs with the good news here: the PEDI-NL can still track those balance drops because it stays consistent even after fatigue hits.
Rivilis et al. (2012) tracked fitness loss in kids with DCD over five years. Like the present study, they used a quasi-experimental design to measure motor change. Both papers tell you to measure early and measure often, but only the PEDI-NL gives a tool that stays reliable across raters.
Osório et al. (2025) found that autistic toddlers walk with shaky, uneven steps. The PEDI-NL mobility section can pick up the same kind of inconsistency in CP+CVI kids, giving one scale that works across neurodevelopmental labels.
Why it matters
If you serve kids with both CP and vision loss, you now have a Dutch checklist you can trust. Use it before and after any gait or balance intervention. One form covers self-care, mobility, and social skills, and the score will not bounce around because different therapists filled it out.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Print the PEDI-NL, have two staff score the same child, and check that your ICC matches the paper’s 0.87 before using it in reports.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
PURPOSE: The aims of this study were to adapt the Paediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory, Dutch version (PEDI-NL) for children with cerebral visual impairment (CVI) and cerebral palsy (CP) and determine test-retest and inter-respondent reliability. METHOD: The Delphi method was used to gain consensus among twenty-one health experts familiar with CVI. Test-retest and inter-respondent reliability were assessed for parents and caregivers of 75 children (aged 50-144 months) with CP and CVI. The percentage identical scores of item scores were computed, as well as the interclass coefficients (ICC) and Cronbach's alphas of scale scores over the domains self-care, mobility, and social function. RESULTS: All experts agreed on the adaptation of the PEDI-NL for children with CVI. On item score, for the Functional Skills scale, mean percentage identical scores variations for test-retest reliability were 73-79 with Caregiver Assistance scale 73-81, and for inter-respondent reliability 21-76 with Caregiver Assistance scale 40-43. For all scales over all domains ICCs exceeded 0.87. For the domains self-care, mobility, and social function, the Functional Skills scale and the Caregiver Assistance scale have Cronbach's alpha above 0.88. CONCLUSION: The adapted PEDI-NL for children with CP and CVI is reliable and comparable to the original PEDI-NL.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.11.018