A great attention is being directed toward improving special education services for children and adults with autism in Jordan. Among the different types of special education services comes the assessment and diagnostic evaluation process that helps professionals assess and diagnose children with autism for eligibility and developing educational intervention plans (IEPs).
The present study aimed to develop a Jordanian Arabic Version of The Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS-2) in a Jordanian population of students with autism ages from three to 13 years old. The study examined the psychometric proprieties of the translated version of the scale through investigating: (a) the translation ability to match the original English version, (b) the validity indicators in terms of content, concurrent, and construct validity, and (c) reliability indicators in terms of time reliability indicators and internal consistency.
A sample of 100 students aged from three to 13 years was divided into two groups (50 students each): students with autism and students with Mental Retardation and used in the study. Group of systematic translation procedures were implemented to assure the ability of the translation to match the original one and to represent content validity indicators. The percentages of agreements among reviewers of the translation indicated a perfect agreement (100%) to indicate that the translation is matching the original one. Results of the pilot study of the five students with autism indicated that the translation matches the original English version with an overall agreement of 94.2%.
Moreover, correlation coefficients of concurrent validity between the translation and the Jordanian version of the ABC were significant to indicate a relationship between both instruments. Results of t test for independent samples indicated a difference in means between both groups (autism and MR group) to indicate construct validity indicators. Results of test-retest, Alpha coefficient, and split-half reliability coefficients indicated high reliability indicators of the translation. Based on these results, one can conclude the applicability of using the translated version of GARS-2 for its intended population.
