PARCA-R Questionnaire
The Parent Report of Children’s Abilities (PARCA) parent questionnaire was originally developed by Professor Robert Plomin and colleagues to assess the cognitive and language skills of 2 year old children in the Twins Early Development Study.
In 2004, the questionnaire was adapted and validated for use with preterm infants by Samantha Johnson, Neil Marlow, Dieter Wolke and colleagues to identify preterm children who are at risk for developmental delay. The adapted version became known as the PARCA-R (the Parent Report of Children’s Abilities-Revised for preterm infants) and was first used as a 2-year neurodevelopmental outcome measure in the United Kingdom Oscillation Study (UKOS).
The PARCA-R is now used a neurodevelopmental outcome measure in observational studies and clinical trials and as a screening tool in child development clinics. The questionnaire should be filled out by a child’s main caregiver and takes no more than 15 minutes to complete. It is available non-commercially. A copy of the questionnaire and scoring instructions can be downloaded using the links below.
- Download the PARCA-R questionnaire
- Download the PARCA-R scoring instructions (
192 KB) - Download a list of publications that have used the PARCA-R ( 272 KB)
Standardising the PARCA-R
Prof Samantha Johnson and colleagues are currently standardising the PARCA-R. This 12-month project, funded by Action Medical Research, is using PARCA-R data from over 5,000 children to develop age- and sex-adjusted standardised scores. These newly developed scores will allow professionals to use the PARCA-R to precisely quantify a child's developmental stage in relation to the norm and to screen for developmental delay. The project is expected to be completed in April 2019. You can read more about the project on the Action Medical Research website.
For enquiries about the PARCA-R, please email parca-r@leicester.ac.uk.
