Objective To investigate the recognition of the international Guide for Monitoring Child Development (GMCD) toolkit among child health care providers in China, and to provide evidence-based support for the promotion of GMCD in China.

Methods An online questionnaire survey was conducted among child health workers who had received GMCD toolkit training before January 2021. The survey aimed to understand their satisfaction with GMCD toolkit content, the effects on improving the quality of pediatric clinic services, their evaluation of the toolkit’s impact on improving the competency of child health care providers, and the advantages of the GMCD toolkit compared to other tools.

Results The GMCD toolkit was evaluated by 111 users from 14 provinces and cities, accounting for 78.2% of those who had received training. In terms of the content, 81.1% (90/111) of users were satisfied with all parts of the GMCD toolkit. In terms of short-term effects of GMCD, and 99.1% and 98.2% of users believe that the GMCD toolkit could improve the quality of pediatric outpatient services and the competency of pediatric health care providers, respectively. In terms of the effects on improving the quality of pediatric outpatient services, 92.8% (103/111) of the users agreed that the GMCD toolkit could enhance the initiative and trust of parental communication. Furthermore, regarding the effects on improving the competency of pediatric health care providers, while 91.9% (102/111) of the users agreed that the GMCD toolkit can improve their communication skills with child caregivers. Among the 107 surveyed users who had used other child development assessment tools, the top three main advantages of GMCD were identified as no extra device required, ease of mastery, and high parental acceptance, accounting for 80.4%, 72.9%, and 70.1%, respectively. Statistical tests showed that users’ satisfaction with the GMCD toolkit materials was not influenced by factors such as age, practice type, years of work, or usage (all P > 0.05). However, the evaluation of toolkit advantages was affected by their sociodemographic background, with occupation type, and professional title showing statistical significance in labor-saving differences (all P < 0.05). There was an association between the evaluation of the advantages of the toolkit and socio-demographic characteristics such as type of occupation and job title. The GMCD ‘commonly used group’ was more recognized than the ‘less commonly used group’ in terms of the toolkit’s labor-saving, economic efficiency, and parental acceptance, and the differences were all statistically significant (all P < 0.05).

Conclusion GMCD toolkit has received widespread recognition in child clinical health services in China. The use of the GMCD toolkit by healthcare professionals is significant for improving their ability to identify psychological and behavioral developmental issues in children. It will be further promoted among child healthcare providers nationwide. Since the service personnel were all at the initial stages of using the toolkit during the study, it is necessary to further evaluate its long-term impact on children’s development in future research.