A Novel Tool That Assesses Participation – Is Focus on Outcomes of Communication Under Six, Turkish (FOCUS-TR) Reliable?

Nida Şanlı Zeynep Merve Eken
Abstract

Purpose: There are many different assessment, evaluation and intervention methods in speech and language field. Recently World Health Organization (WHO) proposed International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health -Children and Youth (ICF-CY) classifications present holistic framework which consider body functioning, body part, activity, participation and environmental factors to capture wellness and functioning of the clients. In speech and language assessments, speech and language pathologists (SLPs) mostly consider body functioning and body parts but have limited tools to assess participation which reflects the effect on real life situations. Consequently, SLPs need tools to measure communicative skills and participation in assessment processes and following speech and language interventions to meet the holistic point of ICF–CY's proposed by WHO. In line with this need, Focus on Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS) is developed, a communicative output- oriented assessment for children before the age of six. FOCUS primarily measures ‘communicative participation’ for preschool children by assessing communication and interaction adequacy on real life situations such as at home, school or in community. Considering Turkish literature, due to lack of tools to provide ICF holistic framework and communicative participation, FOCUS has been adapted to Turkish (FOCUS-TR). There are two available versions of the FOCUS: one designed for the speech-language pathologist and one for the parent. In this research it was aimed to investigate the internal and external reliability of the FOCUS-TR parent scale. Method: 30 literate parents (mother or father) were included this study. The FOCUS-TR was administered to the same parent with an interval of one week. In data analysis; test-retest, internal consistency and split-half reliability were analyzed using Paired Sample t-Test, Pearson correlation analysis, and Cronbach  (CA) coefficient. Results: The difference between the FOCUS-TR total test and retest scores was evaluated with the paired t-test and no statistically significant difference was found (p=0.891). There was high level correlation between the test and re-test scores of the FOCUS-TR total score (r=0.918, p<0.05). CA was calculated for both test and re-test. In the initial test, FOCUS-TR total score CA value was excellent (=0.962), re-test CA value was excellent (=0.970). Internal consistency of test and retest scores was analyzed with split-half test reliability. Split half reliability analysis was analyzed for both test and re-test. The initial test (rS=0.902) and the re- test (rS=0.933) were good half split reliability. Conclusion: FOCUS-TR, which is Turkish adaptation of FOCUS, has a high reliability.


Keywords

speech and language therapy, participation, FOCUS-TR, ICF-CY, communicative output, intervention


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