Data shows link between deprivation and child development
Children from the poorest parts of Scotland are more than twice as likely to have concerns recorded about their development.
Children from the poorest parts of Scotland are more than twice as likely to have concerns recorded about their development.
New figures show more than a quarter (26%) of children from the most deprived areas had at least one developmental concern identified during reviews offered to every child reaching 27 months.
That compares to just one in nine (11%) for children living in the most affluent parts of the country in 2015/16.
During the reviews, health visitors assess the child against nine developmental categories, including attention, speech, social, emotional, behavioural, vision and hearing.
Statisticians said: "There is a clear association between deprivation and developmental concerns with children from the most deprived areas more than twice as likely to have at least one developmental concern."
However the percentage of children with at least one concern identified has fallen slightly in both the most and least deprived areas between 2013/14 and 2015/16.
In Scotland overall, 18% of children had at least one concern identified, with speech, language and communication the most common issue raised.
Boys were more likely than girls to have a concern recorded, at 23% compared to 13%, while nearly a quarter (24%) of Asian children had at least one concern compared to nearly one in five (19%) for the white Scottish ethnic group.