Designing and Studying the Psychometric Properties of Needs Assessment Questionnaire of Educational and Rehabilitation Problems in Children with Down Syndrome-Therapist Form: A Mixed Research

Down syndrome causes various problems in children, and this makes this group of children require unique educational and rehabilitation care. The present study aimed to design and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Needs Assessment Questionnaire of Educational and Rehabilitation Problems in Children with Down Syndrome.

This study incorporated a combined research method. The statistical population of the qualitative part included Therapists of children with Down Syndrome in 2021 in Isfahan. Twenty therapists were selected intentionally. In the quantitative part, 150 people were selected using random sampling method. The research tools were semi-structured interviews in the qualitative stage, and "Needs Assessment Questionnaire for children with Down syndrome- therapist form" in the quantitative stage. To analyze the data of qualitative part, all interviews were transcribed and the main themes were encoded in several stages. To analyze the data of quantitative part, the content validity, were investigated by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient and retest, respectively.

The results of qualitative analysis of the interviews showed that the needs of these children fall into six categories: cognitive, linguistic, motor, social and emotional, learning and teaching, and daily life skills. The minimum and maximum CVR are 0.8 and 1; CVI was estimated to be 0.97. The results of the correlation of items with the total score of the scale indicate that all items have a significant correlation with the total score. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the existence of 6 factors with acceptable factor load. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was also 0.77. The coefficient of test interval was 0.73.

The results showed that the questionnaire for children with Down syndrome-therapist form" had acceptable psychometric properties and can be used for research and rehabilitation purposes.