Tradução e adaptação transcultural do instrumento Play Skill Assessment™

Abstract

Play is the child's main means of interaction with the world, and it is through it that he is inserted in contexts that allow him to experience different sensations, learn with (and about) the world, as well as learn about the relationships around him. From this perspective, occupational therapists and educators must conduct evaluation processes to determine how the child plays in the most diverse environments. Thus, evaluation instruments that can identify the child's potential and their possible difficulties during play are important, but the creation of an instrument in Brazil is not a quick process. Researchers may, for example, encounter different obstacles along the way, such as funding difficulties, long time for the preparation and application of tests, in addition to the care that is necessary to maintain impartiality. An alternative to this situation is the adoption of the methodological process for translation and cross-cultural adaptation of existing instruments in other countries, followed by their introduction in the Brazilian scenario. Thus, this study aimed to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Play Skill Assessment™ instrument, which assesses the playing of children between 2 and 7 years old in the school context while interacting with their peers. This instrument is structured on the observation method of children playing, having five components to be observed as an axis: (1) Curiosity; (2) Playfulness; (3) Narrative Creation; (4) Imagination; and (5) Peer Play. The study design is methodological and followed the steps: [i] instrument translation by two independent translators; [ii] synthesis of translations; [iii] back-translation into English; [iv] evaluation by a committee of experts and elaboration of the pre-final version; and [v] cognitive interviews with a total of nine teachers from the child education. As a result, a translated version of the Play Skill Assessment™ instrument for Brazilian Portuguese was created. It is concluded that the translated version of the instrument allows occupational therapists and teachers from the school system to have a new evaluation tool, adapted to observe children in the Brazilian school context while they play, and in this way, the intervention processes can be guided according to specific criteria