Developing a Persian test battery of prereading skills for screening Preschool-aged children

Background: The lack of screening test battery has made it difficult for early identification and intervention of Persian-speaking children with risk of reading problems prior to formal education. The purpose of this study was to develop and introduce a Persian prereading test battery based on the multidimensional reading perspective for screening preschool children. Methods: First, the predicators of reading skill and dyslexia along with the subscales of each predictor were identified through literature review and holding expert's panel. The batteries of tests were performed on 48 typically-developing children (5.6-6.6 years old) selected using the random (cluster) method. The Pearson correlation coefficient, item analysis and then reliability were measured. Results: The 5-component test battery with 8 subtests was formed. Findings indicated there were moderate and significant correlations between subtests (all r>0.4, p<0.001). Internal consistency reliability for the subscales was 0.51 to 0.89. Conclusion: The Persian test battery of prereading skills including phonological awareness, identification of first and closing phonemes, visual discrimination skill, rapid automatic naming and phonological working memory may identify children who are at risk. A longitudinal study is warranted to evaluate its detailed psychometric properties.