Semantic, conceptual, experiential and idiomatic equivalence of sensory processing measure for preschoolers

Expert Committee is the stage IV for the process of cross cultural adaptation. The expert committee’s role is to consolidate all the versions of the questionnaire and develop what would be considered the prefinal version of the questionnaire for field testing. In this article, the method aims to obtain semantic, idiomatic, experiential and conceptual equivalence of the Sensory Processing Measure - Preschool source and target version by an expert committee. A purposely selected group of professionals, composed of four occupational therapists specialized in sensory processing disorders intervention with more than ten years’ experience in paediatrics, together with a specialist in the translation and validation of instruments, formed the focus group. They compared the two versions (SPM-P Home Form and School Form) and made significant changes to the instrument at a weekly meeting for a consecutive month in order to adapt it to Portuguese culture. The expert committee achieved equivalence between the source and target version in four areas: Semantic equivalence, Idiomatic equivalence, Experiential equivalence and Conceptual equivalence. Several items were adapted and the instrument can now be pre-tested and can start collecting a sample of a hundred children.