Project Activities
To develop and evaluate the assessment, the research team used exploratory factor analysis and item response theory to determine the items to use and the instrument's validity with children with speech production difficulties as well as typically developing children.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The research took place in Michigan. Children from Pennsylvania, Texas, and California also participated during item development.
Sample
Participants included 291 children in preschool or early elementary school with speech production difficulties. Children were included if they had an Individualized Education Program with active goals related to speech or language services. In addition, approximately 938 typically developing 3- to 7-year-old children participated in the initial phases of the research
ATLAS is a computerized adaptive assessment that measures phonological awareness of children ages 3 to 7. It addresses children's rhyming, blending, and segmentation skills. Its features include options for nonverbal responses, scores that can be easily interpreted in terms of other assessments of phonological awareness, and individualized instructions depending on a child's skills.
Research design and methods
A three-phase process guided the development and evaluation of the ATLAS. During the first phase, the team created and revised items, assessment instructions, and the user interface. The item pool was administered to typically developing children during the second phase to calibrate and eliminate items that were not functioning properly, create a common scale of phonological awareness, and examine the construct validity of items. During the third phase, the final ATLAS was administered to children with speech production difficulties to assess item validity for this population. Adaptive algorithms were programmed based on project findings.
Control condition
Due to the nature of this research, there was no control condition.
Key measures
Across all phases, children were administered items from the ATLAS. During the second phase, the 3-year-old children in the sample and half of the participating 4- and 5-year-old children were also administered the phonological awareness subtest of the Test of Preschool Early Literacy; the other half of the 4- and 5-year-old children and all 6- and 7-year-old children were administered the phonological awareness subtest of the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing-2. All 5- to 7-year-old children were administered the first sound fluency and phoneme segmentation fluency subtests of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Next.
Data analytic strategy
Exploratory factor analysis and item response theory analysis were used to identify items that should be eliminated or revised and to demonstrate that ATLAS is measuring a unidimensional construct with construct validity.
Key outcomes
The main findings of this project, as reported by the principal investigator, are as follows:
ATLAS, an adaptive test of phonological awareness with 120 items, was developed and validated for children with typical development as well as those with speech and/or language impairment. ATLAS has the following innovative features: 1) it only requires non-verbal responses, 2) it is comparable in format and interpretation with existing assessments, 3) it is computerized, 4) it individualizes instructions based on the child’s needs, 5) it is an adaptive test to minimize test length, and 6) it is publicly available (www.accesstoliteracy.com).
Rasch analyses indicated that items fit well together and formed a unidimensional construct of phonological awareness. Differential item functioning was minimal between the two groups of children and scores on ATLAS-PA were moderately to strongly related to other measures of phonological awareness.
Adaptive algorithms were created for ATLAS and scores were mapped from ATLAS onto other measures of phonological awareness (Skibbe et al., 2020).
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Project website:
Publications:
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Select Publications
Skibbe, L. E., Bowles, R. P., Goodwin, S. Troia, G. A., Haruka, K. (2020). The Access to Literacy Assessment System for Phonological Awareness: An Adaptive Measure of Phonological Awareness Appropriate for Children with Speech and/or Language Impairment. Language, Speech, and Hearing in Schools, 51, 1124-1138.
Clark, D. A., Nuttall, A. K., & Bowles, R. P. (2021). Study length, change process separability, parameter estimation, and model evaluation in hybrid autoregressive-latent growth structural equation models for longitudinal data. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 45(5), 440–452. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254211022862
Clark, D. A. & Bowles, R. P. (2018). Model fit and item factor analysis: Overfactoring, underfactoring, and a program to guide interpretation. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 53, 544-558, DOI: 10.1080/00273171.2018.1461058
Clark, D. A., Nuttall, A. K., & Bowles, R. P. (2018). Misspecification in latent change score models: Consequences for parameter estimation, model evaluation, and predicting change. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 53, 172-189, DOI: 10.1080/00273171.2017.1409612
Available data:
Individuals interested in the data can contact Lori Skibbe (skibbelo@msu.edu).
Additional project information
The ASHA Leader, March 3, 2021 [https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/leader.RIB1.26032021.10/full/]
Questions about this project?
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