College of Education

“It was tried hard to maintain the meaning of the original items, however some changes were inevitable…”
Vameghi, R., Sajedi, F., Mojembari, A., Habibollahi, A., Lornejad, H., & Delavar, B., (2013)

Context

Vameghi, R., Sajedi, F., Mojembari, A., Habibollahi, A., Lornejad, H., & Delavar, B., (2013)

Global commitment to improving outcomes for children

• Increase in early childhood intervention
• Need screening tools in ALL countries & languages

Existing screening tools can be adapted!
Use Evidence-based Guidelines
for Translation & Adaptation

• International Test Commission (ITC, 2017)
• World Bank (Fernald et al, 2009)
• World Health Organization (WHO, 2017)

Goals for Translation:

Linguistic Equivalence & Cultural Appropriateness

1. Even if a tool is linguistically equivalent, it will not be effective if it is not culturally appropriate, acceptable, or considered as useful by community members.
2. The translation process must not be rushed and should be done according to established guidelines in order to develop an adapted tool that is high quality and is culturally and linguistically appropriate.

Examine current practices in recent studies

Literature Search*
Focused on articles published 2010-2017 addressing translated/adapted versions of commonly used developmental screening tools:

1. Ages & Stages Questionnaires (ASQ)
2. Denver Developmental Screening Test (Denver)
3. Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS)

Criteria used to evaluate articles (based on international guidelines)

1. Pre-translation activities

Examples of Modifications

1. Pre-translation activities
   • Communicate with authors and/or publisher

• Determine if the content of the test is culturally congruent (i.e., relevant or meaningful)
  • Involve local professionals and community members
  • Involve local specialists (e.g., speech language pathologists, physical/occupational therapists, parents)

Translation Steps

• Forward translation to target language (or culture)

Articles published in 2010-2015 from El-Behadli A, Neger E, Perrin E, Sheldrick C. (2015).
For articles published after 2015, a search was done on Medline, Eric, Academic Search Premier & GoogleScholar using search terms ”Ages & Stages Questionnaires, ASQ, Parents Evaluation of Developmental Status, PEDS, Denver Developmental Screening Tool” and “translation, adaptation, validation"

• Back translation into original language
• Comparison of two versions to address discrepancies

• If needed, additional modifications are made; several iterations may be necessary to reach final version

Documentation

• Community members & local experts review items & evaluate cultural, developmental, and linguistic appropriateness
• If needed, additional modifications are made; several iterations

4) Piloting to Determine Final Version

• Community members & local experts review items & evaluate cultural appropriateness