Development of the Arabic Version of the Preschool Activity Card Sort (A-PACS)

Area of Science:

• Occupational therapy
• Child development
• Cross-cultural adaptation of assessment tools

Background:

• Measuring preschool children's participation in daily activities is crucial for occupational therapists.
• A lack of culturally relevant assessment tools hinders occupational therapy practice in the Arab world.
• The Arabic Preschool Activity Card Sort (A-PACS) addresses this need for Arabic-speaking preschoolers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development of the Arabic Version of the Preschool Activity Card Sort (A-PACS).
• To adapt the internationally recognized Preschool Activity Card Sort (PACS) for Arabic-speaking children.
• To create a culturally relevant tool for assessing preschooler participation.

Main Methods:

• A four-phase process including focus groups for culturally appropriate activities, translation, and cognitive pilot testing.
• Validation using two rounds of the Delphi technique with 115 caregivers from diverse backgrounds in Jordan.
• Data collection involved interviews with caregivers stratified by age and gender.

Main Results:

• The final A-PACS version includes 95 activities, with 23 specific to Arabic culture.
• Activities are categorized into self-care, community mobility, leisure (high and low demand), social interaction, domestic, and education.
• Top activities for Jordanian children included drinking, walking on stairs, eating, family gatherings, and kicking a ball.

Conclusions:

• A culturally adapted Arabic version of the PACS (A-PACS) has been developed.
• This represents a significant first step in creating a psychometrically sound assessment for Arabic-speaking preschoolers.
• The A-PACS aims to improve the evaluation of participation for this population.