Early child development
Scotland 2022 to 2023

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides an update on children’s development as assessed during the 13-15 month, 27-30 month, and 4-5 year child health reviews. The latest information presented comes from reviews provided to children becoming eligible for review between April 2022 and March 2023.

Main points

• In 2022/23, 12% of children who received a 13-15 month review, 18% of those at 27-30 month review, and 17% of those at 4-5 year review had a concern noted about at least one area of their development.
• This was similar to the previous year at the 13-15 month and 27-30 month reviews, but higher at the 4-5 year review (17% in 2022/23 vs 15% in 2021/22).

Chart showing the percentage of children with a developmental concern by stage of review

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Percentage with a developmental concern recorded by stage of review

• At the 13-15 month review the most frequent domains about which developmental concerns were noted were gross motor (7%) and speech, language and communication (6%); at the 27-30 month review this was speech, language and communication (13%), and at the 4-5 year review speech, language and communication (8%) and emotional/behavioural development (8%).
• There are persistent inequalities in the proportion of children who are found to have a developmental concern. At 27-30 months, this proportion is 2.7 times higher among children living in the most deprived areas (27%) than those in the least deprived (10%), a wider gap than previously observed.

Background

Early child development is influenced by both biological factors (such as being born premature) and environmental factors (such as the parenting and opportunities for play and exploration children receive). Problems with early child development are important as they are strongly associated with long-term health, educational, and wider social difficulties.

Detecting developmental problems early provides the best opportunity to support children and families to improve outcomes. There is good evidence that parenting support and enriched early learning opportunities can improve outcomes for children with, or at risk of, developmental delay. There is also increasing evidence that intensive early interventions for children with serious developmental problems can also improve outcomes.

All children in Scotland are offered the child health programme which includes a series of child health reviews, including an assessment of children’s development at 13-15 months, 27-30 months and 4-5 years.  These reviews involve asking parents about their child’s progress, carefully observing the child, and supporting parents to complete a structured questionnaire about the child’s development. At the end of the review Health Visitors record whether they have any concerns about each area of the child’s development.

Information for parents on early child development, and promoting good development, is available through Ready Steady Baby, Ready Steady Toddler, and Parent Club.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be April 2025.