The Denver Developmental Materials are for providers of direct care to children. With procedures which are simple and quick, they can be used in a busy setting by both professionals and paraprofessionals. The procedures are designed to further the optimal development of children from birth to six years of age through guidance and identification of those who may require additional evaluation. The core materials, (the PDQ II, a parent answered questionnaire, and the DENVER II), provide a developmental surveillance program appropriate to settings where time is of the essence.

The Denver Developmental Materials were originally developed in the 1960's to encourage the early identification of children with developmental problems by those in close contact with them; health professionals, education and social service providers. The goal was to create standardized tests easy, quick and simple to administer and interpret.

The original core tests were revised to include more language and articulation items. The resulting DENVER II (1990), formerly the DDST, was standardized on over 2000 children. The interpretation was expanded to include separate norms for subgroups showing clinically significant differences in development, and allow for adapting scoring relative to a particular population.

The authors, realizing that no one, simple, quick developmental screening test can identify a broad variety of disorders of intelligence, language, mental health, motor and self help skills, chose to develop ranges of norms. Such construction, enables the user to obtain a quick overview of the child's development and to identify relative areas of strength and weakness. The result is a surveillance and developmental measuring method analogous to a growth chart which gives the provider the opportunity to further investigate any areas of concern.