Content validation of school readiness module and school readiness scale for assessing school readiness in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Abstract

There is a paucity of research on interventions targeting preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) for school readiness. The objectives of this study are to develop and validate a school readiness module for making children with ASD ready for inclusive education and a scale to assess school readiness in them. Based on literature review, principles of learning, and techniques of behavioral intervention, a module was developed and reviewed by independent experts regarding the utility of the contents. A scale to assess school readiness was also developed to measure the impact of administering the module on children with ASD which was also validated by the same set of experts. Lawshe's content validity ratio was used to assess the appropriateness of each item for inclusion in the module and scale. Experts (n=6) gave their opinion on the usefulness of the School Readiness module for children with ASD. The experts agreed that most of the content under each component were valid with the exception of identification of objects by function, identification of environmental sounds and answering social questions. Similarly, in the school readiness scale there was good agreement for all items except for 1 item under domain 2 and 2 items under domain 5. A school readiness module and a scale to assess school readiness based on interventions provided as per the school readiness module were developed and validated. Further studies are needed to assess the utility of the module and scale in children with ASD.