The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the validity of using the Spanish version of the EYE, known as the Evaluación Infantil Temprana (EIT), for identifying children at risk of experiencing reading difficulties in the first grades of school. This dissertation is divided into three independent studies and reported with a three-paper PhD dissertation format. The first study shows evidence based on the relationship of the EIT scores with children’s age and sex, and the school’s socioeconomic status (SES). The second paper provides evidence about the appropriateness of the content included in the test. The third paper integrates the findings of several documents and research papers, including the first two papers of this dissertation, to determine the extent to which the evidence supports the use of the EIT for identifying children at risk of reading difficulties. The validation process followed in this dissertation is based on the argument-based approach, which entails three steps: the description of the use of the test being validated; the identification of inferences and assumptions that lead the EIT scores to the use being validates; and the evaluation of, first, the individual evidence that support each assumption and inference, and second, the argument as a whole. The findings revealed six inferences and 11 assumptions that connect the EIT scores with the use being validated. Those inferences and assumptions are supported by strong and moderately strong evidence, and they embody a clear, coherent and plausible argument; however, some gaps were identified. The main conclusion of this dissertation is that there is sufficient evidence to claim that the EIT can be used to reliably identify children at risk of reading difficulties in the first grades of schooling. The concluding section identifies further studies that would strengthen the validity claim.
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