Development of the Turkish rapid automatized naming tests

Abstract

The aim of the study was to adapt the four subtests of Rapid Automatized Naming Tests (RAN) for Turkish children aged five to ten years and to establish the validity and reliability of the tests for the same population. The participants were 277 students ranging from kindergarten to the fifth grade. RAN has four subtests: Pictures, Colors, Numbers, and Letters. Children were expected to name visually presented stimuli as accurately and quickly as possible. Construct validity was determined by the intercorrelation among RAN subtests, age differentiation, and correlation with oral reading fluency measure. For the content validity, expert judgment was considered. Correlation analyses indicated that as children became older, the total time to name visually presented items diminished. All RAN subtests were significantly correlated with each other since they all measure visual naming speed. The symbolic tasks (i.e., RAN Letters and RAN Numbers) were much more associated with each other unlike RAN Objects and Colors. The relationship between reading speed and RAN showed that children performed better in RAN tests, when the number of words read correctly in one minute increased. The Turkish RAN tests provided a high degree of consistency across test-retest and interrater reliability. The results revealed that RAN tests are reliable and valid measures for Turkish speaking children. However, further research is needed to establish norms for RAN tests for Turkish children. The Turkish RAN tests will be useful for future studies for exploring the role of naming speed and for understanding a child’s reading development.