[The Mottier test : psychometric evaluation using scores from children age 4-6 years].
BACKGROUND
The Mottier test to examine phonological processing is a widespread, frequently used instrument in clinical diagnostics. However, data on its validity and reliability are scarce. The reference scores for non-schoolchildren in 1981 (collected with small samples) have become outdated.


METHODS
Three hundred and eight children (154 boys, 154 girls) from the German federal states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia were examined with the Mottier test (4-year-olds: n=86; 5-year-olds: n=126; 6-year-olds: n=96).


RESULTS
The average item difficulty P for all children was 45.5 (range 5.8-90.6). On average, the items were easier to perform with increasing age (4-year-olds: P=37.3; 5-year-olds: P=46.5; 6-year-olds: P=52.7). The average item discrimination indices r(it) were 0.49 for 6-year-olds and 0.91 for 4-year-olds. The mean test score for all children was 13.76 (SD 4.35). There was a shift for the worse compared with the mean test scores from 1981 (4-year-olds: 11.19, SD 3.93; 5-year-olds: 13.95, SD 4.02; 6-year-olds: 15.81, SD 3.97). To determine reliability, the internal consistency (Cronbachs alpha=0.77) and split-half reliability were computed (r(tt)=0.86). The criterion-related validity with the convergent criterion "number recall" amounted to r=0.52 (p<0.0001) for all.


CONCLUSIONS
It seems that young children nowadays have more difficulties successfully solving the items in the Mottier test than did children about 25 years ago.
Abt. Phoniatrie/Pädaudiologie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen, Robert-Koch-Str. 40, 37075, Göttingen, Deutschland.
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Kiese-Himmel
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity