There are tools to measure child hood cognitive development in developed world but the tool applicable for developing countries is still unclear.
We searched scale for childhood cognitive development from 2 months to 5 years but did not find wide enough. So we developed our scale for childhood cognitive development from 2 months to 7 years and use it in Russia, Ukrainian, Kazakhstan and some other countries. Anyway you have to standardize any scale to your country for it to be applicable so I may give you our scale (in English and German) for standardizing, use and distribute to your colleagues in your country for help them. If it would be interesting, I may send the description of the scale to you on your request.
It depends on what you need to measure. In Uganda we have used the Mullen Scales for Early Learning to measure motor skills, language and visual reception in children below 5 years. The Early Childhood Vigilance Test has also been used to measure attention here (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24771329). In Malawi, a tool to measure neurodevelopment was recently developed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20520849). In Pakistan there is rapid assessment tool that has also been developed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20308214). You can see what works best for you.
In Portugal we use the Reasoning Test Battery (Almeida & Lemos, 2006), in portuguese, an instrument that evaluates the cognitive achievement of students from grades 5 to 12; using the five types of reasoning of this battery – abstract, numerical, verbal, mechanical, and spatial – we calculated the general intelligence score (g).
First I want to extend my gratitude for all who read and try to help me on giving answer to my question and voluntarily share their experience. It is known fact that profound nutritional and cognitive deficits early in life doom many children in developing countries to low educational achievement and low economic productivity. There is also little awareness of brain development and early childhood care among these communities. It is a great challenge for researchers who want to study in these thematic areas; lacking this important tool to measure early child hood cognitive development in most developing countries.
I agree with Sergey Miroshnikov's response - finding an instrument that is standardized on the population of interest is critical. I would suggest first contacting the publishers of some of the more commonly used cognitive instruments in use with early childhood, to see if they are aware of any norms that have been developed in other countries using their instruments. Some of the instruments to consider would be the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Wechsler Primary and Preschool Scales of Intelligence, Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, and the Differential Abilities Scale.
I believe there are some internationally comparative studies in develping countries measuring cognitive development.
For a review, see Tinajero &Loizillon (2010). The Review of Care, Education and Child Development Indicators in Early Childhood. UNESCO.
See also UNESCO (2013). Toward Universal Learning - What Every Child Should Learn. On page 78 you can find a table with instruments used around the world to measure also cognitive development. One of the most popular is the EDI, a check list used also in developing countries.
Another tool I have encountered my work is the Zambian Child Assessment Test (ZamCAT, 2012 available at http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/zambian_project/). The tool taps 7 domains: nonverbal reasoning, receptive and expressive language, fine motor skills, information processing, socio-emotional development, task orientation, and executive function. It has been constructed specifically for use in developing countries (Fink, Matafwali, Moucheraud, and Zuilkowski, 2010).
I know there are several other initiatives in the develping world and they are mostly carried out with support from UNESCO and the World Bank. You can check their websites for more information.
At present I cannot locate another important reference I have come across recently, but if I do, I will add it in another post later.
Best of luck in your endeavour.
Cristina
I am trying to measure school readiness among the age group of 3 to 6. Had reviewed on the topic . kindly suggest standardized scale in this regard. Thank you.