title: An initial reliability and validity study of the Interaction, Communication, and Literacy Skills Audit.
abstract: Early childhood educators (ECEs) have an important role in promoting positive outcomes for children's language and literacy development. This paper reports the development of a new tool, The Interaction Communication and Literacy (ICL) Skills Audit, and pilots its reliability and validity. Intra- and inter-rater reliability was examined by three speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Five skill areas relating to ECE language and literacy practice were rated. The face and content validity of the ICL Skills Audit was examined by expert SLPs (n = 8) and expert ECEs (n = 4) via questionnaire. The overall intra-rater reliability for the ICL Skills Audit was excellent with percentage close agreement (PCA) of 91-94. Inter-rater agreement was PCA 68-80. Expert SLPs and ECEs agreed that the content was comprehensive and practical. Based on this preliminary study, the ICL Skills Audit appears to be a promising tool that can be used by SLPs and ECEs in collaboration to measure the skills of ECEs in the areas of language and literacy support. Future psychometric and outcome research on the revised ICL Skills Audit is warranted.
authors.affiliation: The University of Sydney , Sydney , Australia.
authors.forename: Nisrine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: El-Choueifati
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Purcell
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McCabe
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Heard
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Munro
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002652:Child Behavior; D002654:Child Care; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D015588:Observer Variation; D010379:Peer Group; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012919:Social Behavior; D013066:Speech-Language Pathology / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Early childhood professionals; language development; literacy; measurement tools; professional development; reliability; validity