TELEQ : développement et validation d’un test de lecture de mots québécois
Dyslexia is a learning disability that involves important consequences, and thus needs to be identified at an early age. Yet, most of the available instruments are European and do not allow a valid assessment of word-reading abilities in children from Quebec, due to cultural and linguistic differences. This lack of appropriate instruments for the French-speaking Quebec population stresses the need to elaborate a new word-reading assessment tool. Hence, we developed the « Test d’évaluation du langage écrit québécois (TELEQ) ». This essay presents the construction process of the word-reading subtest of TELEQ, describes the performances of elementary school students, and measures its psychometric properties in terms of validity and fidelity. Fifty typical French-speaking children from second to sixth grade were administrated the TELEQ and a test battery assessing their reading abilities. The TELEQ was then readministrated two to six weeks later. Results show that the TELEQ performances correlate significantly with those of the other tests measuring word-reading skills, which indicates a strong convergent validity. Furthermore, the relation between both administrations of the TELEQ reflect a very good test-retest reliability. Finally, the internal consistency of the word lists is excellent. These preliminary results suggest that the word-reading subtest of the TELEQ is a valid and reliable instrument that appears relevant for assessing Quebecois elementary school children. Additional studies involving a greater number of participants and a group of dyslexic children are on-going in order to reproduce the present results, establish normative data, and measure the diagnosis sensitivity of the test.
reading assessment dyslexia learning disability dual pathway model word-reading skill psychometric validation