PTA scale for children aged 4 to 7 years: Selecting developmentally valid and reliable items

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to select developmentally valid and reliable items for inclusion in criterion-referenced (pass > 90%) posttraumatic amnesia (PTA) scale for children aged 4 to 7 years in a prospective cohort study. Fifty-two typically developing children (26 male/26 female) aged 4 to 7 years were administered a set of 10 items (5 orientation, 5 memory) over 3–4 days. The total score obtained on the set of 10 items had poor developmental validity and test–retest reliability. Nevertheless, individual item analysis identified five items (three orientation and two memory items) that were consistently passed by >90% of the children on each day of testing. For these five items the total scores did not differ significantly either between age groups or between days of testing. Test–retest was extremely high (close to 1). The five items had excellent developmental validity and test–retest reliability. This study identified 5 (3 orientation and 2 memory) items that met our selection criterion and form a new PTA scale, the Sydney PTA scale (SYPTAS), for children aged 4 to 7 years.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• memory
• orientation
• posttraumatic amnesia