Constructing and Evaluating Psychometric Properties of Neuropsychological Skills Questionnaire (Teacher Form) for Preschool Children

The primary goal of preschool education is facilitating learning the basic concepts such as reading, writing, and math. Prerequisite skills such as neuropsychological ones are required for learning these concepts. This study aimed at constructing and evaluating psychometric properties of neuropsychological skills questionnaire (teacher form) for preschool children. 

In the qualitative section, we used the thematic analysis method. The statistical population included all books, theories, and Persian and English articles related to neuropsychological skills. The sample was selected using the purposeful sampling method and considered sufficient as theoretical saturation was achieved. A descriptive- survey research design was used in the quantitative section. The statistical population consisted of all preschool children in Isfahan in the academic year of 2020-2021. According to Cochran’s formula, 374 preschool children were determined as the research sample. Due to the Coronavirus - 2019 restrictions, this study used an online questionnaire, and 410 preschool teachers selected by the two-stage cluster sampling completed the questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis method with the main components’ analysis and the varimax rotation and confirmatory factor analysis for the goodness of the model fit were used to investigate the construct validity.

The results confirmed the face and content validity, discriminant validity, construct validity, and the right norm of the researcher-made questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire, estimated by Cronbach’s alpha, was 0.921; its split-half reliability coefficient was .84, and its clinical cut-off point was 2.86. Regarding eigenvalues greater than one, eighteen factors in the first order and five factors in the second order were extracted using exploratory factor analysis, which respectively explained 83.58 and 85.59 percent of the total variance of the scale. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that factor loadings of all items were higher than 0.4 and significant (p<0.01).

In general, it can be concluded that the researcher-made questionnaire has good validity, reliability, and norm; therefore, it can be used as a valid instrument for assessing the neuropsychological skills of preschool children.