No. Children participating in the EYE-DA must be at least 3 years of age. There are a few reasons why the EYE-DA is not an appropriate assessment for children younger than 3 years:
- Purpose of the tool: the EYE-DA is specifically designed to measure the developmental outcomes of children aged 3-5 as they prepare for and make the transition to school (kindergarten). Children younger than 3 years of age are not transitioning into Kindergarten, and so administering the DA on them would be an invalid use of the tool. The assessment is valid only if inferences made from the results are appropriate, meaningful, and useful.
The developmental expectations of children less than 3 years of age are substantially different than those who are transitioning into kindergarten. One universal assessment cannot be used to assess children from toddlerhood to school age. The EYE-DA items would be far too difficult for children less than 3 years of age, and the psychometric properties/age norming upon which the assessment was built would not support the use of the assessment in children this young.
- Age of acquisition: there will be a number of words, concepts, and even motor abilities that children less than 3 years of age will simply not have acquired yet; this does not mean that they are "behind" developmentally, but simply are not at that developmental stage yet. Therefore comparing children this young to those who are transitioning to kindergarten is again an invalid use of the tool and does not render useful results.