Rasch analysis of the assessment of children's hand skills in children with and without disabilities.

The Assessment of Children's Hand Skills (ACHS) is a new assessment tool that utilizes a naturalistic observational method to capture children's real-life hand skill performance when engaging in various types of activities. The ACHS also intends to be used with both typically developing children and those presenting with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to further investigate the construct validity of the ACHS using the Rasch analysis. Participants included 64 typically developing children and 70 children with disabilities in the age range of 2-12 years. Rasch analysis results confirmed the appropriateness of the ACHS's 6-level rating scale in this combined group of children. All 22 activity items and 19 of the 20 hand skill items in the ACHS formed a unidimensional scale and were ordered according to difficulty as clinically and developmentally expected. The ACHS also exhibited sufficient response validity and item-difficulty range when applied to children with disabilities as well as typically developing, preschool-age children. Furthermore, less than half of the ACHS items were found to exhibit differential item functioning with regard to gender (5 activity items) and disability (2 activity items and 7 hand skill items). Therefore, the ACHS shows preliminary evidence of construct validity for its clinical use in assessing children's hand skill performance in real-life contexts.

Chien CW ，Brown T ，McDonald R 《-》

Examining construct validity of a new naturalistic observational assessment of hand skills for preschool- and school-age children.

The Assessment of Children's Hand Skills is a new assessment that utilises a naturalistic observational method to capture children's real-life hand skill performance when engaged at various types of daily activities in everyday living contexts. The Assessment of Children's Hand Skills is designed for use with 2- to 12-year-old children with a range of disabilities or health conditions. The study aimed to investigate construct validity of the Assessment of Children's Hand Skills in Australian children. Rasch analysis was used to examine internal construct validity of the Assessment of Children's Hand Skills in a mixed sample of 53 children with disabilities (including autism spectrum disorder, developmental/genetic disorders and physical disabilities) and 85 typically developing children. External construct validity was examined by correlating with three questionnaires evaluating daily living skills and hand skills. Rasch goodness-of-fit analysis suggested that all 22 activity items and 19 of 20 hand skill items in the Assessment of Children's Hand Skills measured a single construct. The Assessment of Children's Hand Skills items were placed in a clinically meaningful hierarchy from easy to hard, and the difficulty range of the items also matched the majority of children with disabilities and typically developing preschool-aged children. Moderate to high correlations (0.59 ≤ Spearman's ρ coefficients ≤ 0.89, P < 0.01) were found with the assessments of daily living and fine motor skills. This study provided preliminary evidence supporting the construct validity of the Assessment of Children's Hand Skills for its clinical application in assessing children's real-life hand skill performance in Australian contexts.

Chien CW ，Brown T ，McDonald R 《-》

Construct validity of the Children's Hand-Skills ability Questionnaire (CHSQ) in children with disabilities: a Rasch analysis.

The Children's Hand-Skill ability Questionnaire (CHSQ) is a new parent-report questionnaire that assesses children's manual ability in three domains: leisure and play, school/education, and activities of daily living. The CHSQ can be used with children presenting with a range of disabilities and works as a companion assessment before detailed performance-based observations of hand skill are completed. This study further investigated the internal and external construct validity of the CHSQ. Participants included 53 Australian children and 70 Taiwanese children with known disabilities ranging age from 2 to 12 years. Rasch analysis results confirmed the appropriateness of the CHSQ's 3-level rating scale in this combined group of children. Twenty-one of the 22 items in the CHSQ formed three individual unidimensional scales representing with the domains of leisure and play, school/education, and activities of daily living. The CHSQ also exhibited sufficient person-response validity (all the three domains) and item-difficulty range (all but one domain) when applied to children with disabilities. Less than half of the CHSQ items were found to exhibit differential item functioning with regards to gender (4 items) and cultural difference (7 items). In addition, moderate to high correlations (0.61 ≤ Pearson's r coefficients ≤ 0.76, p<0.01) were found with the assessments of self-care and hand skill performance. Therefore, the CHSQ exhibits preliminary evidence of construct validity for its clinical use in obtaining children's manual ability based on parent-report information.

Chien CW ，Brown T 《-》

Cross-cultural validity of a naturalistic observational assessment of children's hand skills: a study using Rasch analysis.

Chien CW ，Brown T ，McDonald R 《-》

Examining content validity and reliability of the Assessment of Children's Hand Skills (ACHS): a preliminary study.

Chien CW ，Brown T ，McDonald R 《-》