PAHO Launches Tool to Track Early Childhood Development

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has released the Spanish version of the Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) monitoring tool, which is designed to track the development of children up to 36 months old. The launch aims to establish a standardized method applicable across cultural and regional contexts.

“The GSED tool represents a milestone in the comprehensive assessment of early childhood development,” says Jarbas Barbosa, Director, PAHO in a video message during the launch. “It provides a common language within and between countries to generate evidence that guides policies, improves programs and services, and ensures accountability.”

The GSED, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) with support from multidisciplinary experts, measures cognitive, socio-emotional, language, and motor skills. The organization argues that there had been no unified scale for assessing development in children under three. Existing tools were either designed for children older than 24 months, limited in their cultural applicability, or required significant resources for implementation.

The tool introduces the “D-score,” a composite measure that integrates all domains of child development into a single scale. This standardized approach allows policymakers and health systems to generate comparable data across populations and countries. According to PAHO, such data will help governments allocate resources more effectively toward programs and interventions targeting children at risk of developmental delays.

The Spanish-language release was presented in a virtual seminar co-organized by PAHO and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where participating countries shared their experiences applying GSED tools in public health and research. Barbosa says that the translation reflects a joint effort between PAHO and the IDB, underscoring the view of early childhood development as a shared regional responsibility.

Validation studies of GSED have been conducted in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Tanzania, each involving more than 1,200 children. Data collection is ongoing in Brazil, Chile, China, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Netherlands. The package includes short and long forms, usage manuals, scoring, and adaptation guides, as well as a technical report describing the methodology and validation results. A digital application is also available.

The tool is open-access, and PAHO expects it will continue to evolve. As more data are collected, an expanded version incorporating international norms and standards for child development will be published.