Validation of risk indicators for the constitution of the reader/scribe

To evaluate risk factors for the constitution of the reader/scribe.

This is an exploratory study in which a retrospective questionnaire about the child before entering elementary school, based on preliminary indicators for the constitution of the subject reader/scribe, was applied to a population of 293 parents of elementary school students from a public school in São Paulo. The findings were crossed with the diagnostic survey of writing of students from the 1st to the 5th grade and with the evaluation of text production of students from the 3rd to the 5th grade. Data was statistically analyzed.

The questionnaire showed acceptable reliability and the analysis of convergent validity presented positive correlation considered valid, statistically significant with the diagnostic survey of writing, that is, the higher the score the better the performance in the survey questionnaire. There was statistically positive correlation between the questionnaire and the performance of the students on text production in cases where parents had complaints regarding the reading and writing of their children. Exploratory factor analysis validated the proposed construct.

The questionnaire is easy to apply and inexpensive, and the results showed acceptance by the respondents -- fundamental characteristics of instruments that serve public health and education. The research allowed validating 8 of 15 risk indicators initially proposed for the constitution of the reader/scribe. This validation confers quality to the construct and opens possibilities for its use in health promotion, prevention and rehabilitation in reading, writing and therapy.