Cultural Adaptation of the “Language-Based Reading Disabilities Checklist” for Persian-Speaking Students: A Psychometric Study

Introduction: Regarding the prevalence of learning disabilities (LD) and its consequences, the availability of a valid and reliable screening tool will help provide early diagnosis and intervention for at-risk students. A significant number of students with a LD have a history of language problems; therefore, it is rational to recognize them through a checklist entitled “language-based reading disabilities checklist.” This study aims to examine the translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and assessment of the psychometric features of the checklist for Persian-speaking students. Materials and Methods: The research team administered forward and backward translations, cognitive briefing and validity and reliability evaluations. Content validity and face validity were calculated based on the content validity ratio (CVR) (critical value ≥0.42), critical validity index (CVI) (critical value ≥0.79) and item impact score (IIS) (critical value ≥1.5). The Kuder- Richardson-21 was administered to calculate the internal consistency. Results: In translation, two words (‘wanders’ and ‘rhymes’) must be equated. Teachers assessed the checklist as easy to understand and clear. They required approximately five minutes to complete the checklist for each student. The panelists removed two items with a CVR≤0.42 and one item based on the CVI and IIS. The internal consistency of the checklist was 0.94, and the item’s intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) ranged from 0.543 to 0.885. Conclusion: The Persian version of the language-based reading disabilities checklist is a valid and reliable tool for Persian-speaking students in Iran. It should be checked whether this tool also applies to bilingual Iranian students (Turkish, Kurdish, Lor, Arabic and Baloochi).