The MDAT (Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool) is a culturally relevant tool, reliably identifying children with delayed development and neurodisability in low- and middle-income countries. The tool assesses development in the domains of gross motor, fine motor, social and language in children 0-6 years, and was developed by the teams at the University of Liverpool, Keele University, and Malawi College of Medicine.
The tool takes around 30-40 minutes to administer, and can be administered by anyone with a high school education after training. The questionnaire comes as a simple grid with pictures and prompts and there are videos which can be provided for training to help conduct the assessment.
Recent studies have demonstrated its use as one of only three tools which report adequate psychometric properties and feasibility for identifying and monitoring young children with disabilities at primary health care level in low and middle income settings.
