GMDS 0-2 - Griffiths Mental Development Scales - Revised: birth to 2 years
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Authors
Ruth Griffiths. Revised by Michael Huntley.
Edition
1996
Training Requirements
Level 3. To find a course near you, click here.
Used for
The assessment of mental development in babies and young children from 0-2 years.
Suitable for
0 to 2 years. (Griffiths scales for the age group 2-8 years are supplied in a separate edition.)
Description
This version of the Griffiths scales measures the rate of development of infants and young children from birth to 2 years. (The scales have been extended to eight years in another edition which is described separately.)
The Griffiths scales are used extensively by paediatricians and psychologists in the UK and increasingly in many other countries. Originally published in 1954, the GMDS were the first published scales designed to assess mental development in children below two years of age.
In 1996, a major revision of the Griffiths 0-2 Scales was undertaken. The revision team, headed by Dr Michael Huntley, carried out a complete re-standardisation of the Scales, adding 8 new items to the apparatus and introducing a revised Record Form.
The GMDS measures, individually and collectively, five areas of development for the 0-2 age group as follows:
Sub-scale A: Locomotor assesses gross motor skills including the ability to balance and to co-ordinate and control movements. The scale measures in some detail all the series of developing skills that result in the achievement of an upright posture leading on to learning to walk, run, climb etc. Locomotor skills differ in kind from ‘intellectual’ activities but in the early years while the child is still learning the skills that comprise this area, he or she must draw greatly on mental energy and ability to concentrate. Items include age-appropriate activities such as kicking and rolling (in the first month), walking up and down stairs, running and jumping (in the second year).
Sub-scale B: Personal-Social measures the developing abilities that contribute to independence and social development. Items for the early months include visual recognition of mother, following moving people with eyes and holding a spoon. Items at the older end of the 0-2 age range include using a spoon competently to feed self, asking for things at table, ability to open a door, helping to dress or undress self.
Sub-scale C: Hearing and Language allows the assessment of hearing (in the sense of active listening), receptive language and expressive language. The active listening stage at first precedes and then accompanies early pre-speech. At the younger end of the scale items include being startled by sounds, searching for sounds with eyes, vocalisation other than crying and responding when called. Age appropriate items for the latter months of the second year include listening to stories, identifying objects and use of word combinations.
Sub-scale D: Eye and Hand Co-ordination focuses on fine motor skills, manual dexterity and visual monitoring skills. There is an early period of attentive ‘looking at’ or visually examining the immediate physical environment. This visual exploration later accompanies reaching for objects, grasping and other manipulative activities. The items in this scale reflect this process with early items assessing visual adjustment; the ability to focus on and fixate objects keeping them in view when they move. Thus, early items include following a moving light with eyes, looking at a ring or toy momentarily when it is held up, and glancing from one object to another. In the second month the items start to include grasping and reaching for things. Age-appropriate items at the top of the 0-2 age range for this scale include pouring water from one container to another, building a tower of bricks and throwing a ball into a basket.
Sub-scale E: Performance draws on the developing ability to reason through performance tests. Like the previous scale, Scale E deals with situations requiring some manual performance but where Scale D is focused on the developing co-ordination of hand and eye, Scale E focuses on the way in which such skills are applied in novel situations. Visual spatial skills including speed and precision of working are assessed. Age appropriate items include clasping objects placed in hand, dropping one cube for a second, unwrapping to find a toy or cube, putting a lid back on a box and opening a screw toy.
A kit of standardised equipment is required to administer the items in the Griffiths scales. The kit consists of 29 pieces which are fitted into a carrying case. In addition to the equipment in the kit, practitioners will need a few sheets of white drawing paper and some crayons to hand.
Detailed instructions for using the equipment and scoring the items are given in the manual.
Scores on individual items are written onto a record form which has space on the right hand side for notes and comments. A ‘month of age’ column indicates the number of items across the whole scale that are passed by the average child by the time that particular month of age is reached. The record form is colour coded to draw attention to items of a similar kind. Working through sequences of similar items allows a simpler, more time-efficient administration that proceeding from item to item as they appear in order of development. A key to the colour coding is provided as part of the form.
In addition to detailing responses to individual items the record form allows sight of the whole profile at a glance. There is scoring grid where raw scores, age equivalent scores, quotients and percentiles can be recorded. A second chart, referred to as a profile grid is provided to give a visual representation of the child’s abilities on the scales and highlight relative strengths and weaknesses.
Raw scores for each individual sub-scale are computed by adding the total number of items passed on that sub-scale. The raw scores from all the sub-scales are added to obtain a total raw score. The raw scores can be converted into three kinds of standard score:
• Age Equivalents
• Sub-Quotients and General Quotients
• Percentile Equivalents
Reliability
Internal consistency was computed using the corrected split-half method. For the sub-scales at 3 monthly age bandings internal consistency ranges from .68 to .94. Thirty-eight of the forty coefficients are above .70. Total scores for each sub-scale show internal consistency ranging from .91 - .97.
A small sample of children (N=28) from the standardisation sample was re-tested with an average interval of 1.7 months between test occasions. The range of ages was 1.5 to 21.3 months on the first test. Each child was seen by the same practitioner on both test occasions although the same practitioner did not test all the children. The overall test-retest reliability for the total set of scales was 0.48 with the greatest consistency being obtained with children in their second year (.82 vs. .29 for babies in the second six months and .29 for babies in the first six months). The same variations across age bands in terms of consistency over time are seen for the individual sub-scales. The only exception to this pattern is Scale B (Personal-Social) where consistency is highest in the first six months and lowest during the second six months. These consistencies reflect differing rates and patterns of development at different age bands and probably also variations from the average in individual children.
Validity
273 children from the 1996 standardisation sample were compared against the original standardisation sample from more than 40 years earlier. Compared with the original, the mean of the 1996 sample was more than 11 IQ points higher and the whole distribution is shifted to the right.
After the first trial of 1996 revised scales, item analyses were conducted to determine difficulty level and discrimination power.
Group differences are presented and discussed for the following sub-groups:
- Boys vs. Girls
- Urban vs. Rural
- Geographical area
- Socio-economic class
- Ethnic Group
Norms
For the 1996 revision, the UK standardisation sample consisted of 665 children (366 boys and 299 girls). The number of children tested in each two-month age band was from 47 to 62.
Duration
50 - 60 minutes
Languages
English, German, Italian, Portuguese
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