The Development of a Checklist To Assess Tablet Games on Usability for Language Therapy

Abstract

The Development of a Checklist To Assess Tablet Games on Usability for Language Therapy

BACKGROUND: More and more speech-language therapists (SLTs) are using tablet games (TGs) in the treatment of children with specific language impairment. Because most TGs are not specifically developed for language therapy, SLTs must select usable TGs themselves. AIMS: The aims of the study were to determine which characteristics make a TG useful for language therapy and to develop a valid and reliable Dutch checklist to assess the usability of TGs for language therapy. METHOD: The study had a mixed methods design. The participants consisted of 41 SLTs who work with children and use TGs in language therapy. The checklist was constructed based on qualitative data from two focus groups regarding the characteristics that make a TG useful for language therapy. In the quantitative part, inter-rater reliability was assessed by comparing the assessments from three independent raters of 50 TGs. Construct validity was determined by principal component analysis (PCA). RESULTS: The study resulted in a checklist consisting of 26 dichotomous items, based on seven main themes and 21 subthemes derived from the qualitative data. Fourteen items showed poor agreement (Fleiss’ kappa <0.20). After removing the unreliable items, the checklist had a fair inter-rater reliability (ICC 0.392). The PCA resulted in a three-factor solution. “Suitability for therapy”, “attractiveness for the child” and “practical characteristics” constitute the underlying theoretical constructs of the checklist. CONCLUSION: The checklist has good content validity and face validity. Revision is needed to improve the reliability and validity of the checklist to make it a useful instrument for SLTs. RECOMMENDATIONS: The checklist items must be clarified to avoid differences in interpretation, and the answer scale must be changed to facilitate more nuanced ratings and to enable the use of other statistical methods to obtain information about the reliability of the revised checklist.