Validity, reliability and norm studies on the Phonological Awareness Scale of Early Childhood Period (PASECP)

The acquisition of skills for reading is a complex process that requires education alongside cognitive, social and emotional development (Cunningham 1990; Gillon 2006; Güneş 2007). The issue to be curious about in this process is the necessary skills for children to begin to resolve the words and the methods to be used to develop these skills. The skills which form the basis of the preparatory process for literacy are the skills like alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, the concept of print and the use of literacy as a communication tool (Raisor 2006; Swan 2008; Wasik, Bond & Hindman 2002). Phonological awareness among these skills is defined as an important skill in the process of learning to read (Ehri, Nunes, Stahl & Willows, 2001; Shankweiler & Fowler 2004).In order to be able to measure the skills for phonological awareness in early childhood period, a lot of scales have been developed all around the world. These scales give information about the nature of reading difficulties which the children in early childhood period can have in the future. Therefore, the scales are important since they give the opportunity of early intervention. The developed scales are formed according to each country?s own linguistic, cultural and educational structure. The aim of this study is to develop a Phonological Awareness Scale of Early Childhood Period (PASECP) and to make the validity, reliability and norm analyzes of the scale. The universe of the study covers 733 children of 6 year-old who have been receiving an education in 25 preschool educational institution in Canakkale, Istanbul, Bursa, Balikesir and Kocaeli provinces which are considered to represent the Marmara Region in 2011 ? 2012 academic year. In the data analyses, for the reliability studies test-retest reliability coefficients,content validity coefficients and standard deviation have been identified. In the validitystudies, content validity, construct validity and criterion validity procedures have been carried out. The findings obtained at the end of the research had indicated that Phonological Awareness Scale of Early Childhood Period (PASECP) sub scales are reliable and valid. In the study, it has been found that there have been dramatically significant differences between phonological awareness and socio-economic status of parents.