Parental Education and Unmet Therapeutic Needs Among School-Aged Children With Developmental Delays: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Survey in Aachen, Germany.

Abstract

Objectives: Early intervention in the context of developmental delays is crucial for mitigating the adverse effects of developmental delays. The purpose of this study was to determine inequalities in the unmet therapy needs of school-aged children with developmental delays by parental education.

Methods: Data from the 2015-2019 school-entry survey of Aachen, Germany, were used (N = 7,211). We assessed unmet therapy needs by parental education for global developmental delays and for delays in physical coordination, selective attention, visual-motor skills, visual perception and reasoning, knowledge of numbers and quantities, and speech and language.

Results: Inequalities in unmet therapy needs were identified across all domains to the disadvantage of children with low parental education. Significant disparities in unmet therapy needs were found for global developmental delay and for delays in physical coordination, selective attention, visual‒motor skills, and speech and language.

Conclusion: Unmet therapy needs affect children with lower parental education more frequently across all areas of developmental delay, highlighting the need for further studies and interventions to explain and reduce disparities in the unmet therapy needs of children with developmental delays.