Adaptation of the Syllable Repetition Task (SRT) and determining its validity and reliability in 4-6 Persian speaking children

Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the SRT that was performed in 4-6 years Persian speaking children. The SRT is a nonword repetition task that assesses phonological working memory and has been designed by Shriberg in 2008. Methods The present research was a non-experimental study with methodological design. The content validity of task was evaluated by 15 speech language pathologist (SLP). Lawshe coefficient was acceptable and therefore without changing the number and phonological structure of the nonwords, the SRT was performed in 140 normal children in two groups (4-5 and 5-6 years old) that were selected randomly from 10 kindergartens of Tehran. To assess the test-retest reliability, the SRT was performed with one-week intervals. Finally, to determine differential validity of the SRT, task was performed in 30 children with speech sound disorders (SSD) that has been selected from Speech and language clinics of Tehran. we used SPSS software version 21 to determine Pearson correlation coefficient, Cronbach''s alpha coefficient and T test. Results CVR coefficient of the SRT was between 0.57 to 1. Cronbach''s alpha coefficient of the total score was 0.83 and Pearson correlation coefficient between successive runs was 0.87 (P <0.001). There was a significant difference between the performances of two age groups (P=0.001). Also the SRT score in SSD children was significantly lower than normal children (P=0.001). Conclusions The SRT appears to be a psychometrically valid and reliable nonword repetition task for evaluating phonological working memory. The evidence of differential validity of the SRT was approved by two ways:Differences between two age groups of normal children and differences between normal and SSD groups. Poor performance of children with SSD indicates that these patients have difficulty to store and retrieve of phonological information in their working memory.