Piloting the PuzzleBox Screener for preschool assessment in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

This article explores the shift from Western-based assessment tools to contextually relevant approaches to testing that reflect the experiences of preschool children in South Africa. This study reports on the piloting phase of the newly developed PuzzleBox Screener, with the aim of evaluating the psychometric performance of items to inform decisions on retaining, refining or removing items for the PuzzleBox Screener. The tool uses minimal, recyclable equipment to screen developmental progress in children aged 5 years to 6 years and 11 months in isiXhosa, English and Afrikaans from peri-urban, rural and informal settlements in the culturally diverse Eastern Cape. A quantitative design evaluated 65 children across five developmental domains: cognitive, language, fine motor, socio-emotional and gross motor during the piloting phase. Item selection was determined using a structured approach combining factor loadings from the exploratory factor analysis and item discrimination and difficulty from the item response theory (IRT). Outcomes from this phase included 15 cognitive, 9 fine motor, 12 emotion–social–moral, 12 language and 6 gross motor items, which can be revised or retained. Contribution: The findings indicate that the PuzzleBox Screener can identify developmental delays across the domains investigated in the study using minimal, recyclable equipment. The results support the tool’s feasibility in South Africa and emphasise the need for context-specific measures, innovation and change in early childhood assessment.