Exploring validation of a graphic symbol questionnaire to measure participation experiences of youth in activity settings

Abstract

Participation has a subjective and private dimension, and so it is important to hear directly from youth about their experiences in various activity settings, the places where they “do things” and interact with others. To meet this need, our team developed the Self-Reported Experiences of Activity Settings (SEAS) measure, which demonstrated good-to-excellent measurement properties. To address the needs of youth who could benefit from graphic symbol support, the SEAS-PCS^TM,¹ was created. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of SEAS-PCS and the preliminary study that explores the equivalency of the SEAS and SEAS-PCS. The SEAS and SEAS-PCS were compared in terms of the equivalency of meaning of stimulus items by 11 professionals and five adults who used augmentative and alternative communication, were familiar with PCS, and were fluent readers. Out of 22 items, 68% were rated as highly similar on a 5-point scale (M = 4.14; SD = .70; mdn = 4; range: 2.81–5.00). Subsequently, the 32% of the SEAS-PCS items that were rated below 4 were modified based on the participants’ specific comments. Further work is required to validate the SEAS-PCS. The next step could involve exploring the views of youth who use AAC.

Keywords:

• Participation experiences
• activity settings
• self-report measure
• youth who use AAC

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants, Fiona Campbell and Linda Davis from the Hamilton Health Sciences, McMaster Children’s Hospital for their help with creating the PCS^TM version of SEAS, and Laura Thompson, Nevena Zivcovic and Margot McMain-Klein for their assistance with this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the writing and content of this article.

Notes

Notes

1 The SEAS and SEAS-PCS are available for free download through Flintbox at HYPERLINK “https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/RKWoBRSx1dmGcg?domain=flintbox.com” https://flintbox.com/public/project/25724/

2 PCSTM and Boardmaker ?, PCS Addendum 2006, 2012, and PCS ThinLine are products of the DynaVox Mayer-Johnson Company of Pittsburgh, PA., HYPERLINK “https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/vleRBAsZDmrWUx?domain=mayer-johnson.ca” http://www.mayer-johnson.ca

3 The MEQAS is available for free download through Flintbox at HYPERLINK “https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/nKoXBRSN5anOI3?domain=flintbox.com” https://flintbox.com/public/project/25723/

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Team in Optimal Environments for Severely Disabled Youth [TWC-95045]. Beata Batorowicz was supported by a CIHR Vanier Canada Doctoral Scholarship. Gillian King holds the CIHR Canada Research Chair in Optimal Care for Children with Disabilities.