Validation of Malay version of the parents’ feelings and perceptions towards their child’s speech or language disorder (M-PFPSLD) questionnaire

Background: There is a limited number of Malay versions of questionnaires that assess the parents’ feelings and perceptions towards their child diagnosed with a speech or language disorder. Hence, research on the validation of such a survey is necessary to expand the range of assessment and screening tools available in Malay for use within the Malay-speaking population. Objective: The aims of the current study are: to examine the content validity of the M-PFPSLD questionnaire; to investigate the face validity of the M-PFPSLD questionnaire; and to determine the appropriateness of the grammatical and sentence structures of the M-PFPSLD questionnaire. Methods: The M-PFPSLD questionnaire was validated using a cross-cultural adaptation and validation process that includes the process of 1) expert committee review; 2) face validation and pre-testing among parents with typically developing children; and 3) proofreading. Results: The item-level CVI (I-CVI) of 27 out of 28 items were 0.80 and above, which indicated the appropriateness of the items. For scale-level CVI (S-CVI), the average S-CVI (S-CVI/Ave) of the second version of the harmonised M-PFPSLD questionnaire (BM-H2) was 0.93, while the S-CVI universal agreement (S-CVI/UA) was 0.71. All 28 items in the BM-H2 version were acceptable with a 100% score of face validity index (FVI) based on its criteria of readability, feasibility, clarity of words, and layout and style. No changes were made after the proofreading process, thus indicating that the BM-H2 version was well-written, grammatical-error-free, and accurately expressed the intended meaning of the original context. Conclusion: This study concluded that the M-PFPSLD questionnaire has a good content validity index (CVI) and face validity index (FVI). Therefore, it shows that the findings may act as preliminary psychometric properties of the M-PFPSLD questionnaire, and future studies can further research the psychometric properties of the M-PFPSLD questionnaire, such as reliability, construct validity, convergent and divergent validity.