Cross-cultural adaptation for Chile of the EVALOF assessment scale for parents

Abstract

Language is a cognitive function that is considered important for sharing and organizing our daily lives. At the same time, it is a fundamental pillar of human relationships; however, not
all children develop language appropriately. In Chile, it is possible to observe a prevalence of
specific language impairment among 3% to 10% of the child population, which directly
impacts families and their communicative interactions with their children. For this reason, it is
necessary to validate assessment scales for measuring communicative interactions between
parents and children in a family context, in order to have more precise, valid, and reliable
instruments. The objective of this study was to linguistically validate the Scale for the
Assessment of Oral Language in Family Context (EVALOF) self-administered version. The
methodology is quantitative, descriptive in scope, non-experimental, and cross-sectional,
with 67 subjects participating. Among the results, it was observed that the suggestions
proposed by the linguists were consistent when making adjustments to the instrument;
similarly, the twelve expert judges expressed their observations and assessments indicating
improvements and adjustments required for the instrument. Additionally, reliability estimates
were achieved with a pilot study involving 53 parents, yielding a score of 0.84, considered as
“good” reliability. It is concluded that the EVALOF instrument is valid and reliable in its
transcultural adaptation for Chile, as it underwent tests that meet quality stand Ards and
methodological rigor.