How Good Is the Phoneme Elision Test in Assessing Reading, Spelling and Arithmetic-Related Abilities?

Author(s)

Barbosa-Pereira, Drielle ; Martins, Pedro S. R. ; Guimaraes, Amanda P. L. ; Silva, Emanuelle de O. ; Batista, Luana T. ; Haase, Vitor G. ; Lopes-Silva, Julia B.

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: ARCHIVES OF CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY; v. 35, n. 4, p. 16-pg., 2020-06-01.

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties and diagnostic accuracy of phoneme elision task (PET). Method: We assessed cross-sectionally 470 Brazilian children (54.3% girls) aged between 7 and 11 years (mean age = 8.83, sd = 0.85), from the 2nd to 4th grades. Children were assessed in their phonemic awareness ability, as well as intelligence, general school achievement, both verbal and visuospatial working memory, single-word reading, and nonsymbolic magnitude comparison. Beyond the psychometric properties and diagnostic accuracy of PET, we also provided reference values. Results: Our data suggest that PET is composed mainly of one single construct, with high item reliability and precision (KR-20 above 0.90). In general, items have acceptable discriminability, considering item-total correlations. Overall PET is generally a good screening tool for reading and spelling difficulties (SD), as well as to identify children with learning difficulties in the early grades. However, it is not a reliable measure for screening math learning difficulties. Finally, PET shows good convergent and divergent validity. Conclusions: We provide evidence about the psychometric properties and diagnostic accuracy of a PET. Results contribute to the assessment of phonemic awareness in Brazilian children, in both clinical and research contexts. The PET can be used as a screening tool for reading and SD, which could lead to early interventions. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/50909-8 - INCT 2014: Behavior, Cognition and Teaching (INCT-ECCE): relational learning and symbolic functioning
• Grantee: Deisy das Graças de Souza
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants