Memory has been the source of great curiosity and the impetus of a vast amount of research for decades. Ecological validity is an important aspect of this research because of memory’s impact on day-to-day functioning. Everyday memory problems have inspired investigations of the ecological validity of memory assessment measures for children (Chaytor & Schmitter-Edgecombe, 2003). The current study sought to revise the Everyday Memory Survey (EMS), a psychometrically sound adult measure of everyday memory, and investigate its clinical usefulness in pediatric populations with known memory impairment. Research indicates children with epilepsy have a high prevalence of memory impairment (Hendriks et al., 2004). This study was conducted using the Pediatric EMS with a clinical group of children with epilepsy and a non-clinical group of children without epilepsy. Participants included 69 children, (39 male, 30 female) ranging in age from 6-11. The parents/caregivers of the 69 children completed the Pediatric EMS. Results revealed parents/caregivers of participants with epilepsy reported more memory problems relative to those parents/caregivers of participants without epilepsy. Reliability and validity findings suggested that the Pediatric EMS is an internally consistent measure that possesses the ability to discriminate between clinical and non-clinical groups. These findings confirm, in keeping with the Adult EMS, that a normative study should be conducted for the Pediatric EMS to further evaluate and validate the measure’s clinical utility, specifically in populations with known memory impairment.
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