Early childhood development is very complex and consists of the interplay of several areas of development. It is important to regularly check the child’s level of development in order to identify possible delays at an early stage and initiate appropriate support. Standardized test procedures should be used to check the child’s development. The Munich Functional Developmental Diagnostic, which was developed in the 1970s at the Munich Children’s Center, is a practical and economical instrument for this purpose. It records the most important developmental parameters. The revision of the Munich Functional Developmental Diagnostics 1st – 4th year of life began in 2017, and the study was successfully completed at the beginning of 2022.
With the support of the Theodor Hellbrügge Foundation, a total of 3126 children aged 0 to 47 months were examined throughout Germany by doctors, psychologists, (curative and special) educators and therapists and data was collected on the development areas of cognition, language development, motor development, social development and independence.
The Munich Functional Developmental Diagnostic was designed in particular to examine children with developmental problems in order to examine the course of development and adapt support measures to the child’s needs.