U.S. Validation Sample for the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA-Ch)
Data Collection Website
Principal Investigators:
Dr. Daniel C. Miller, Kristen Belloni, and Laura Jacobs
Texas Woman's University, Denton, Texas
Study Conducted in Collaboration with The Psychological Corporation
(now part of Pearson Assessment)
This study is sponsored by the Psychological Corporation (now part of Pearson Assessment). TEA-Ch test kits and protocols have been provided by the test company for use in this project. At the completion of this data collection, the names of the examiners will be entered into a random drawing and several names will be selected. The winners will receive one of the TEA-Ch test kits used in the data collection. Kristen Belloni and Laura Jacobs are TWU School Psychology Doctoral students who will be using the data collected from this study in addition to their own data collection for their dissertations.
The TEA-Ch (Manly, Robertson, Anderson, & Smith, 1999) is a battery of nine subtests designed to assess different components of attention in children and adolescents ages 6 to 16 years. There are several positive features of the TEA-Ch including: 1) the TEA-Ch is an operationalization of Mirsky’s model of attention including measures of selective/focused attention, sustained attention, divided attention, and attentional control/switching (a.k.a., shifting) attention, and 2) the test has two parallel forms which makes it useful for retesting after an intervention.
A limitation of the TEA-Ch is the fact that the test was standardized on a sample of Australian children, bringing the question of generalizability of the results into question. The test was standardized on 293 Australian children and stratified into six age bands: 6-7, 7-9, 9-11, 11-13, 13-15, and 15-16. Scaled scores (mean of 100, standard deviation of 15) are provided based on the age by gender bands. The TEA-Ch test would be strengthened if it were validated on a U.S. population. The purpose of this project is to validate the TE-ACh on a U.S. sample of children.
The U.S. Validation Sample:
The goal of this project is to administer the TEA-Ch to a sample of 240 U.S. children. There will be an equal number of boys and girls in the sample (n= 120 each). There will be 40 participants (20 boys and 20 girls) in each of the original TEA-Ch six age ranges (6-0 to 6-11, 7-0 to 8-11, 9-0 to 10-11, 11-0 to 12-11, 13-0 to 14-11, 15-0 to 15-11).
With each age band and for each sex, the sample will be further strafied based on the parent's educational level and ethnicity.
Who May Serve as Study Examiners?
The validation of the TEA-Ch on a U.S. sample will benefit all of us as clinicians. This is your chance to help promote best practices in school neuropsychology and contribute to the field. If you are a diplomate in school neuropsychology from the American Board of School Neuropsychology, or are a current student in the School Neuropsychology Post-Graduate Certification Program, you may be an examiner for this study.