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Background: A methodological review of 78 empirical articles focusing on the neurodevelopmental outcomes of at-risk infants was conducted., Aims: To examine ways language and terminology are used to describe methods, present results, and/or state conclusions in studies published during 1994-2005, a decade reflecting major advances in neurodevelopmental research and in medical intervention. More specifically, to investigate to what extent the design of the study and the language in the results section aligned in regard to causality., Methods: A process of search and selection of studies published in pediatric journals was conducted through Google Scholar. Criteria of inclusion and exclusion, following PRISMA, were used. Selected studies reported neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants and young children considered at-risk, and were further categorized accordingly to their study designs. Language use in regard to whether the presentation and interpretation of results may convey causal relationships between birth risk factors and neurodevelopmental outcomes was examined following two analytical steps., Results: Forty out of 78 studies, (51.28 %) used causality-implying language (e.g., effect, predict, influence) notwithstanding that the study design was non-causal., Conclusions: Anticipating the next generation of neurodevelopmental-outcomes research, a framework that aims to raise awareness of the importance of language use and the impact of causality-related terms often used in longitudinal studies is proposed. The objective is to avoid ambiguities and misunderstandings around causal or non-causal connections between birth risk factors and developmental outcomes across diverse audiences, including early intervention practitioners working directly with infants and their families., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declares that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Very little research exists that looks at the Ages and Stages Questionnaire simultaneously from a modern latent variable point of view and by looking at its psychometric properties over time., Aims: To explore the latent factor structure of the ASQ using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling techniques for ordinal data and investigate its change over time using the method of vertical scaling from multidimensional Item Response Theory., Study Design: Longitudinal, with the same children being assessed at multiple timepoints., Subjects: Children measured using the 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36, 42, 48month questionnaires of the ASQ. Initial sample (12months) consisted of 2219 children and final sample (48months), 892 children due to drop-out., Outcome Measures: Ages and Stages Questionnaire, 3rd version (ASQ-3)., Results: Results indicate that all ASQ-3 age questionnaires examined showed the proposed 5-factor structure (except the 12-month version) but with different patterns over time. The Gross Motor domain had the fewest misfitting items, from 12months onwards. The Personal-Social domain and the Problem Solving domain had larger numbers of misfitting items. Results from the vertical scaling analysis showed that both the Problem-Solving and Personal-Social dimensions also exhibited the most complex patterns of change over time., Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the ASQ-3 seem to be both time-dependent and domain-dependent. Earlier questionnaires reflect a latent structure that was not as well-defined as for later versions. Also, domains such as Communication and Gross Motor appear to be much more reliably measured than others, such as Problem-Solving and Personal-Social., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)