Development of Screening Instrument for Preschooler at Risk with Dyscalculia

Abstract

This research aimed to develop a screening instrument for preschoolers at risk of dyscalculia and to find the efficiency of such a screening instrument for preschoolers at risk of dyscalculia. The sample consisted of a group of third year kindergarten students in schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission in Bangkok; it was selected in the first semester of the 2018 educational year using stratified random sampling. The schools were divided into small, medium, large and extra large sizes, and then 10% of each school size was selected as the sample. There were seven schools and the sample size was decided by using Krejcie & Morgan’s random table, resulting in 329 students. The instrument used in this research, which was a screening instrument for preschoolers at risk of dyscalculia, consisted of six small tests. The first was for memorization. The second was segregation. The third was counting. The fourth was recognizing the names of numbers and how to write numbers. The fifth was number comparison. The sixth was addition, subtraction, and analysis of data for IOC, reliability, and percentile. The research showed that all six created sets of the screening instrument for preschoolers at risk with dyscalculia had an acceptable IOC value. The first, fourth, fifth, and sixth set found suitability at 1, while the second and third set were at 0.66 – 1, with reliability at 0.88. Moreover, from the risk assessment criteria at the 20^th percentile, it was found that the first set had a cutoff at 10 from full marks of 12. The second set had a cutoff at 9 from full marks of 10. The third set had a cutoff at 12 from full marks of 20. The fourth set had a cutoff at 18 from full marks of 20. The fifth set had a cutoff at 9 from full marks of 12. Finally, the sixth set had a cutoff at 1 from full marks of 10.