The development and construction of a neuropsychological screening instrument for detecting neurocognitive deficits in children with acquired brain injury

Acquired brain injury (ABI) is an "umbrella" category that includes a wide variety of conditions that cause brain damage. Currently, there are no neuropsychological screening instruments available that provide a brief, standardized yet comprehensive assessment of the neurocognitive functions typically impaired by childhood ABI. The purpose of this research project was to develop such an instrument. The name of this instrument is the Comprehensive Neuropsychological Screening Instrument for Children (CNSIC). The primary purpose of the CNSIC is to briefly evaluate the neurocognitive status of children that are suspected of having sustained an ABI in order to increase the likelihood that appropriate and timely comprehensive assessment and intervention will occur.;The development and construction of the CNSIC consisted of five steps. The first step involved formulating general principles to guide the overall development of the CNSIC. These principles included developing a conceptual model and devising general characteristics for subtests and test items. The second step consisted of reviewing the literature from the discipline of clinical neuropsychology to derive a rationale for developing prototype CNSIC subtests and test items. The next step involved the actual construction of prototype CNSIC subtests. The fourth step consisted of a content validity study. The purpose of this study was (a) to determine if the prototype CNSIC subtests appeared to assess the neurocognitive functions that they were designed to assess, (b) to ensure that the instrument adequately assessed the construct of neurocognitive functioning in children, (c) to assist in the selection of subtests and test items for the final draft of the CNSIC, and (d) to revise and improve the prototype subtests selected for the final draft of the CNSIC. The fifth and final step involved a preliminary test tryout. The goal of this procedure was to further revise and improve the prototype subtests selected for the final draft of the CNSIC. These five steps culminated with the development of a final draft of the CNSIC. The content validity study resulted in the prototype subtest pool being revised and split into core (i.e., final draft) and supplementary batteries. The preliminary test tryout resulted in further revisions to the core and supplementary batteries. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).