Abstract: Objective To explore the reliability and validity of Meadow-Kendall Social-Emotional Assessment Inventory (SEAI) for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Students Preschool Version in China. Methods 96 hearing-impaired children were assessed with SEAI, and 30 of them were assessed with Conners Teacher Rating Scale (TRS), 30 by another teacher, 30 by the first teacher 2 weeks later. The data were analyzed with Pearson's or Spearman's correlation analysis. Results For sociable communicative behaviors, impulsive dominating behaviors, developmental lags, anxious compulsive behaviors, items related to deafness, test-retest reliability (correlated coefficient, r) was 0.94,0.55, 0.87, 0.31, 0.74; and Cronbach's α was 0.70, 0.76, 0.76, 0.80, 0.68. The inter-rater reliability was 0.90, 0.58, 0.46, 0.14, 0.55. The subscales of SEAI were correlated (r=-0.36~-0.89, P<0.05) with the subscales of TRS. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the subscale model of SEAI was reasonable. Conclusion The SEAI for Deaf and Hearing-impaired Students Preschool Version can be used for Chinese hearing-impaired children.

Key words: hearing-impaired, children, social-emotional, development, Meadow-Kendall Social-emotional Assessment Inventory for Deaf and Hearing-impaired Students, reliability, validity