Abstracts Communications and the Arts

Revision and Revalidation of a Developing Social Communication Assessment Tool: The Transition Pragmatic Interview 2.0

by Madison L. Mayes

Preparing students with disabilities for post-secondary goals is the objective of transition planning, a component of Individualized Educational Programs required for adolescent students with disabilities. While there are existing assessments of social communication ability, few are designed to provide a profile of strengths and needs related to social communication. The Transition Pragmatics Interview (TPI), a developing social communication assessment tool, was created to fill gaps in assessment. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the content validity of newly developed items for the TPI based on standards set forth by the COnsensus-based standards for the Selection of health Measurement INstruments. Ten experts evaluated relevance by determining if newly items were representative of the intended social communication construct. Seven adolescents provided responses during a cognitive interview. Participant responses were evaluated to determine if the newly developed items were understood as intended. Twenty-three items were found to be representative and comprehensible. Two assessment items, identified as not relevant or comprehensible, were modified based on suggestions from experts and participant responses on the cognitive interview. Items will move forward with field testing in the next phase of the study.