외국인 이주여성 자녀들의 발달 지연에 관한 예비 조사 : Denver Developmental Screening Test 결과를 중심으로

A Pilot Study of Developmental Delay in Children of Foreign Mothers : Based on the Results of the Denver Developmental Screening Test Hyang-In Cho Chung1

Purpose: This is a pilot study assessing developmental delay among children of foreign mothers aged between 2weeks and 60 months living in Gwangju City. Method: 24 samples were selected using a snowball sampling. Data were collected using Korean Denver Developmental Screening Test II and analyzed by descriptive statistics. Result: For the initial assessment, 2 among 24 children (8.3%) were found to be suspected and one (4.2%) was untestable . Two suspected children were later confirmed to be normal at the second evaluation, while the untestable child continued to be untestable . Conclusion: As this study is a pilot study, the sample is selected using a nonprobability sampling method, and the sample size was too small, the study findings cannot be generalized and the interpretation should be done with caution. However, the researcher tentatively conclude that the developmental problems among the children of foreign mothers may be a temporary issue that can be decreased as the children grow having sufficient social support. Possible solutions may be providing Korean language programs for the mothers and exposing the children to educational systems as early as possible.