Initial validity evidence for a game-based digital assessment of phonological awareness in early readers

This study provides initial validity evidence, based on internal structure, together with reliability and grade-level sensitivity data for JILEC-1 (Interactive Language and Literacy Games for Children - Module 1), a seven-game digital phonological awareness battery for Brazilian Portuguese. Participants were 632 children (mean age 6.77 years) from the last year of kindergarten through Grade 2 in three Brazilian schools. Performance was indexed by the Game Progress Index (GPI), a weighted composite of accuracy, speed, and efficiency; results proved invariant to weighting decisions (rank-order agreement across five schemes ρ ≥ .99). Internal consistency was high (α = ω = .87). Exploratory factor analysis (n = 316) supported a dominant factor; confirmatory analysis in an independent subsample, using a calibration-confirmation design, supported a unidimensional model with two theoretically specified residual covariances (confirmation set: CFI = .999; RMSEA = .019). Comparison with correlated-factor and bifactor alternatives characterized the battery as essentially unidimensional (ωH = .84; ECV = .85). Full scalar measurement invariance held across sex; across grades, only configural invariance held, attributable to Grade 2 ceiling effects. GPI scores increased across grades (η² = .49), robust to school clustering. Convergent, predictive, test-retest, and clinical-sample evidence is required before screening applications.