Psychomotor development in children aged 12–23 months from communities in southern Ecuador: a descriptive research note

OBJECTIVE: To describe psychomotor development in children aged 12 to 23 months from rural and urban communities in southern Ecuador using the Abbreviated Development Scale (EAD-1). RESULTS: A total of 138 children were evaluated in the cantons of Calvas and Gonzanamá (56.5% male; mean age 17.75 months [95% CI: 17.14-18.36]). Most participants were classified in the medium developmental category (51.4%), while 24.6% were categorized in the alert level. The personal-social domain showed the highest proportion of alert classifications (42.8%), followed by the hearing-language and gross motor domains (28.3% each). Fine motor-adaptive performance showed more favorable distributions, with most children classified in the medium and medium-high categories. These findings reflect developmental performance within a non-probabilistic sample and should be interpreted as descriptive.