RELIABILITY OF THE DYNAMIC OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT FOR CHILDREN (DOTCA-CH): THAI VERSION OF ORIENTATION, SPATIAL PERCEPTION, AND THINKING OPERATIONS SUBTESTS

The Dynamic Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment for Children (DOTCA-Ch) is a tool for finding out about cognitive problems in school-aged children. However, the DOTCA-Ch was developed in English for Western children. For this reason, it’s not appropriate for Thai children because of the differences of culture and language. The objectives of this study were aimed at translating the DOTCA-Ch in Orientation, Spatial Perception, and Thinking Operations subtests to a Thai version with a World Health Organization back-translation process, and to examine its internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability. The participants consisted of 38 intellectually impaired and learning disabled individuals between the ages of 6?12. Results from this study revealed high internal consistency in the Orientation subtest (α=.83) Spatial Perception subtest (α=.82) and Thinking Operations subtest (α=.82), high inter-rater reliability in the Orientation subtest (ICC =.83), Spatial Perception subtest (ICC =.84) and Thinking Operations subtest (ICC =.74) and high test-retest reliability in the Orientation subtest (ICC =.84) Spatial Perception subtest (ICC =.86) and Thinking Operations subtest (ICC =.85). These results indicate that the Thai version of the DOTCA-Ch in Orientation, Spatial Perception, and Thinking Operations subtests might be used as an appropriate assessment tool for Thai children, based on psychometric evidence including internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability. However, additional study of other psychometric properties, including, predictive validity, concurrent reliability, and inter-rater reliability during the mediation process of this assessment tool needs to be carried out.