Evaluation of normative scores of Neuropsychological Skills Teacher Form Questionnaire of preschool children

Neuropsychological skills are required to learn the prerequisite concepts of reading, writing and mathematics in the preschool period.

The aim of this study was evaluation of normative scores of Neuropsychological Skills Teacher Form Questionnaire of preschool children.

The research method was mixed (qualitative-quantitative). Thematic analysis was used for the qualitative section and the descriptive-survey method in the quantitative section. The statistical population included all preschool children of Isfahan in the academic year of 2020-2021. After obtaining permission from the Education Organization, the researcher-made neuropsychological skills questionnaire was completed online by 410 preschool teachers selected by the two-stage cluster sampling method. Data were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis through principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis by SPSS-22 and AMOS-23.

The normative results of the participants responses to the questionnaire revealed that the raw scores ranged between 1.7 and 4, Z scores ranged between 2.24 and 1.77, t scores ranged between 27.57 and 67.89, and percentage scores were from 0.2 and 100%; furthermore, the factor loadings (p=0.476, Δx2=12.64) were equal among girls and boys. The reliability coefficients of the questionnaire estimated by Cronbach’s alpha (0.921) and split-half (0.843) were acceptable. The clinical cut-off point was 2.86, and factor loadings of all items obtained from confirmatory factor analysis were higher than 0.4 and significant (p<0.001). But the difference between the mean scores of neuropsychological skills of preschool girls and boys was not significant (p>0.05).

The researcher-made Neuropsychological Skills Questionnaire can be used as a valid tool to assess the neuropsychological skills of preschool children.