**Background:** Developmental disability (DD) is a broad spectrum of impairments affecting physical, intellectual, and/or social development, present from birth. In India, 2.5–3.4% of children have various developmental problems, and the prevalence of mental health problems in school-going children varies from 6.33% to 43.1%. Despite government initiatives like the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services scheme), launched in 2013, implementation challenges persist, including lack of formal training in developmental screening for paediatricians, limited resources, and the scheme not covering private schools. The World Health Organization has emphasized the importance of screening children for disability. While India has indigenous tools (Baroda Developmental Screening Test, Developmental Assessment Scale for Indian Infants, Trivandrum Developmental Screening Chart), their psychometric properties are suboptimal. Among Western-developed tools, the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) are considered potentially appropriate for India due to low cost, wide age range, ease of administration, and proven psychometric properties in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The PEDS is a surveillance and screening tool for children aged 0–8 years, comprising 10 questions across 10 categories, with interrater reliability of 0.95 and test–retest reliability of 0.88. The PEDS:DM (Developmental Milestones) is a newer measure with internal consistency of 0.98, test–retest reliability of 0.98–0.99, and sensitivity and specificity of 85% and 80%, respectively. The SDQ evaluates children's mental health problems for ages 2–16 years, comprising 25 questions under five domains, with internal consistency of 0.73, test–retest reliability of 0.62, sensitivity of 95%, and specificity of 35%.
**Methods:** This scoping review followed the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews and the Joanna Briggs Institute Protocol. The search included studies published between 1990 and 2020 from Web of Science, Scopus, PEDS and SDQ websites, and Google Scholar. Keywords for PEDS included 'Parent Evaluation of Developmental Status', 'PEDS', 'PEDS:DM', 'children', and 'India'. Keywords for SDQ included 'Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire', 'SDQ', 'children', and 'India'. Inclusion criteria were children aged 0–12 years living in India, studies using PEDS, PEDS:DM, or SDQ, and studies written in English. Exclusion criteria included studies on people older than 12 years. The initial identification yielded 61 articles for PEDS and 184 for SDQ. After removing duplicates and screening, 7 articles (6 peer-reviewed, 1 grey literature) were included for PEDS, and 8 articles (6 peer-reviewed, 2 grey literature) for SDQ. The first and third authors conducted 100% of the screening with 98% interrater reliability.
**Key Results:** For PEDS, only two empirical studies were identified, both by Malhi and Singhi (2001, 2002) in Chandigarh, north India, with children aged 6–60 months. The first study (55 parent–child dyads) found that 38% of parents indicated no concerns, while 20% raised non-significant developmental problems; 91% of these children passed developmental screening. The second study (79 parent–child dyads) reported that parents' concerns were moderately sensitive predictors of DD in children aged 2–5 years, but sensitivity (65%) and specificity (34.8%) were lower than in the United States. Glascoe (2003) challenged these findings, citing unclear scoring and problematic use of the Developmental Profile-II as the criterion measure. No studies used the PEDS:DM. For SDQ, eight articles met inclusion criteria: three cross-sectional studies, three longitudinal studies, one prospective case-control study, and one literature review. Participants ranged from 0–12 years across various Indian regions. Bele et al. (2013) assessed 370 children aged 5–10 years in urban slums in Andhra Pradesh, finding 22% scored abnormally on at least one SDQ domain. Malhotra et al. (2009) followed 727 school children aged 4–11 years in Chandigarh over six years, finding no significant differences between children with and without psychological disorders on age, gender, or psychological parameters. Anita et al. (2016) studied 222 children with epilepsy and 226 matched controls aged 5–12 years in Mumbai, reporting that 63% of children with epilepsy had emotional problems and abnormal conduct scores, with SDQ total difficulties score abnormal in 39% of cases versus 7.9% of controls. Huynh et al. (2019) compared 2,837 orphans and separated children aged 6–12 years across five LMIC including India, finding no meaningful difference in SDQ total difficulties across care settings.
**Clinical Implications:** This scoping review reveals that India lacks both a literature base and evidence of practice for screening children for DD and SEL concerns. The PEDS and SDQ have not been widely used with Indian children, and existing studies have significant limitations including small sample sizes, lack of translation transparency, and absence of validated local normative data. The PEDS:DM was not used in any study. The review recommends that translation and administration of PEDS, PEDS:DM, and SDQ be undertaken to ensure these tools are relevant and applicable to the Indian population. Concurrent use of these tools could provide a better understanding of the relationship between DD and SEL concerns among children. Given India's linguistic diversity, studies must address translation to regional and national languages with proper psychometric validation. The findings underscore the urgent need for research to address the current gap in local literature and practice, which could enable earlier identification and intervention for children with developmental and social-emotional difficulties in India.