BackgroundOne of the greatest challenges in early communication intervention in South Africa is developing and implementing successful identification strategies in primary health care (PHC). A shortage of trained PHC personnel is one of the barriers to providing adequate health services in South Africa. This dearth of services creates the need to substitute clinician-administered developmental screening tools with parent-administered tools.AimTo determine the accuracy of the Zulu Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) in comparison with the outcome of the English PEDS.SettingThe data were collected in a clinical, non-contrived environment at Stanza Bopape Community Health Clinic in Mamelodi, City of Tshwane.MethodsThe PEDS is a standardised, parent-completed questionnaire regarding the child’s general development. The English PEDS was translated into Zulu by a Zulu linguist. There were 99 potential participants in the study of whom 83 met the necessary prerequisites.ResultsOf the participants whose home language is Zulu, 54% preferred the PEDS in English over the PEDS in Zulu. This indicates a skewed preference towards English, with only slight associations between language preference and age, education and home language.ConclusionThe Zulu PEDS displayed high positive and negative correspondences, representative of an accurate translation of the English PEDS. It is recommended that this study should be repeated in a community where the majority are Zulu home language speakers.