
Contact the Literacy Service
The Literacy Service Team can be contacted for advice and information specific to children and young people who have, or may have, learning difficulties in literacy and dyslexia.
The purpose of this chapter on Literacy Difficulties and diagnostic assessment is:
Firstly, it is important to be aware of the benefits of assessment and the key purposes:
There are two main types of assessment:
Standardised Assessment is a formal assessment which must be given to a large number of pupils of different abilities.
From this you can determine an average ability level and a standardised score.
The standardised score achieved can then be compared to the scores of other pupils of that age.
Standardised tests measure performance levels between pupils taking the same test, and it is important that they are administered, and scored in a consistent or ‘standardised’ manner. This approach enables individual results to be compared with those of others who were tested when the assessment was developed by the publisher. Standardised scores can be useful as they help to compare performance with others and can provide comparable scores by age group.
For a score to be valid these tests must be administered in a standard way, that is, exactly as it is written in the test manual. You must follow the instructions exactly, regarding the administration of the test and dictate instructions and questions verbatim. Scoring of answers must follow the guidance contained in this administrator’s manual. The environment must be consistent for all sittings of the test Only then can a tester be confident that results provide a true reflection of the pupil’s performance compared to their peers.
Standardised tests are primarily summative assessments. It tests what a pupil knows at a point in time.
Scores can be used in school as a monitoring tool to assess a pupil’s progress, to identify those who have additional needs or to inform school development planning.
The tests assess general age-appropriate content and skills and are often not related to specific curricular content.
They provide limited diagnostic information on which to base the content of any intervention.
They should be considered as part of a whole learning profile for the individual, the class and school.
Their benefit is that large groups of pupils can be tested at one time and a spread of ability can be identified, however their limitations are they may not provide enough diagnostic information if required and reliability can be impacted if a pupil has a specific difficulty, such as, dyslexia or a problem with hearing or vision.
Scores can also be affected by how a pupil feels on a given day (sick or upset / tired), pupils can be anxious about a test, pupils’ performance can be affected by other co-occurring difficulties, for example, Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia. Environmental factors may also have an impact (too hot / too cold, noisy, cramped conditions).
It is the testers responsibility to consider the testing environment and to work to mitigate against situations where performance might be adversely affected.
It is important to be consistent when reporting standardised scores and understand standardised scores in relation to the average. You should be consistent in reporting scores. Some test manuals have different descriptors.
The average range falls within the broad band of 85 - 115 with 85 - 89 low average and 111 - 115 high average. Approximately 68% of pupils fall within the average band.
It is important to be aware of confidence bands (which take account of standard errors of measurement) and most tests will provide those. A confidence band will take into consideration the internal and external scores which can alter the score on any given day.
Standard Score (range) | Descriptive Label |
---|---|
130 or more | Well above average |
116-129 | Above average |
111-115 | High average |
90-110 | Mid average |
85-89 | Low average |
70-84 | Below average |
69 or less | Well below average |
Figure 23: Example of standard test scores in relation to the average
Below is an example of a standard Normal Distribution Chart. The standardised scores are on the horizontal line and the percentage of pupils in each range is displayed above each column. This is frequently referred to as the Bell Curve. Standard deviation looks at the spread of data from the mean score which is recorded as 100. With many standardisations used in education, 68% of those tested record standardised scores in the 85 to 115 band.
The bottom 2% of the population falls within the well below average range. The top 2% of the population fall into the well above average range which is above 130.
Figure 24: Example of a standard Normal Distribution Chart
PTE and PTM can be used to show lack of progress or a gap in attainment with peers.
For the individual, they can also identify differences in Maths and English attainment or a gap between attainment and cognitive ability if compared to CAT 4.
The Dyslexia Portfolio is sometimes used in tandem with the Dyslexia Screener which is not diagnostic, and it must be remembered that the publisher is keen to highlight that the screener does not provide a diagnosis of dyslexia. The portfolio will however enable teachers to build a profile of the learners' difficulties which may prove useful when building a programme of support and comparing baseline and final scores post intervention. Many teachers implement the Dyslexia Portfolio Battery for a detailed individual assessment. Standardised scores are provided.
This test was published in 2008 and is one resource that may be used by teachers to investigate in greater depth the nature of the literacy difficulties experienced by a learner. This is a battery of tests to give a detailed individual assessment. It is usually used if a difficulty has been identified by the class teacher and there is a concern with standardised scores from the following tests (PTE, NGRT, NGST). It must be remembered that scores gain from this test do not provide a diagnosis of dyslexia. The Dyslexia Portfolio comprises 2 sections:
It is important to understand that only Educational Psychologists or SpLD Assessment Standards Committee (SASC) approved registered practitioners, may make a diagnosis of dyslexia. SASC members work to agreed standards of practice, established collaboratively by the organisation.
The SpLD Assessment Standards Committee (SASC) was first established in 2005 when a working group comprising SpLD practitioners and Department for Education representatives met to consider what would constitute acceptable evidence of a specific learning difficulty for a student to qualify for the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). SASC is a representative organisation for professionally qualified diagnostic assessors of specific learning difficulties (SpLD). Since (2005) SASC has extended its remit to become an advisory and regulatory body for practitioner assessors of SpLD.
The SASC Test Evaluation Committee (STEC) regularly reviews assessment tests that are suitable for use by qualified, SpLD assessment practitioners and publish anapproved test list regularly.
British Picture Vocabulary Test Scale 3 (GL Assessment) this test may be useful for younger pupils as an indicator of receptive verbal ability but can be used with older pupils. It indicates how well a pupil may access reading and language -based subjects.
MIST is a paper format and identifies the lowest achieving 20-25% of pupils. It provides a recovery programme that actively involves the parents - (Forward Together Programme). It does not provide standardised scores but identifies early literacy difficulties.
The purpose of a diagnostic assessment is to:
To gather a complete picture of a pupil, information needs to be gathered from various sources and recorded on a template.
Literacy Difficulties
Early language difficulties and attendance at speech and language clinics are often linked to literacy difficulties. Vision and hearing problems and knowing if the pupil had blocked ears and needed vents can also contribute to levels of early language development.
Background Information (Parents)
It can be very revealing to listen to what a pupil thinks about school, friends and learning. It can also help the teacher to make sense of their observations.
Pupil’s View
(Adapted from Assessment of Learners with Dyslexia-Type Difficulties-2nd ed. Phillips and Kelly ,2018)
Use of miscue analysis will provide the teacher with more specific information than the assessment of single word knowledge. This form of assessment will provide more specific information on which to base your intervention programme.
Areas to be assessed | Purpose |
---|---|
Reading a passage | Accuracy, fluency, comprehension |
Single word reading | Recognise words without the aid of context |
Reading phonetically regular words | Assess grapheme-phoneme correspondence |
Reading phonetically regular nonwords | Check knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondence |
Reading comprehension | Assess levels of understanding of the text |
Reading speed / fluency | Rate of read |
The first hundred High Frequency words make up almost 50% of the first words read. Assessments of these can inform the extent of phonic knowledge (in relation to phonetically regular high frequency words) and its application to reading. It is important to also be aware that many high frequency words are irregular and not easily decodable, requiring quick recall. Some of these words may already be stored in memory. These assessments can be handmade or taken from sources such as ‘Alpha to Omega’ word lists or ‘Assessment of Learners with Dyslexic-type difficulties’, 2nd ed. Phillips and Kelly, (2018).
Areas to assess
(Refer to Chapter 7, Assessment of learners with Dyslexia-Type Difficulties 2nd ed. Phillips and Kelly 2018)
Miscue analysis is, a method of observing, recording and analysing the strategies used by a pupil when reading a passage aloud. It is appropriate for both primary and post primary levels to assess pupils with literacy difficulties. A miscue analysis is often used to assess the suitability of a passage and the level a pupil has attained, for example, has he / she risen from a book band 7 to book band 11. It is highly effective for assessment and diagnostic purposes. It must be remembered that for developing readers and for those struggling to apply the sound / symbol correspondences when decoding, work on developing this knowledge / ability should continue while using a structured, systematic, and flexible phonics-based approach.
When undertaking a miscue analysis, we are looking at the pupil’s decoding ability, word recognition, and what his / her level of knowledge of language is …. does he / she use context effectively by bringing in his / her own knowledge? Does he / she understand basic grammatical structures? Does he / she understand what he / she has read?
An analysis of the pupil’s ‘miscues’ enables us to assess how effectively he / she uses reading ‘cues’ rather than just analysis of errors. What cues is the pupils using? What strategies is he /she using? The pupil may not be integrating all the available cues effectively and teachers need to know which cues are being used and which are not being used effectively.
Crucially in a miscue the teacher must resist the temptation to supply unknown words or correct mistakes. That can be hard to do!
Miscue Analysis: Select the passage
What cues are being used by the pupil
Work out what cues the pupil is using:
Skills needed for effective reading comprehension:
Spelling can be assessed using the two methods below. A teacher can assess the type of knowledge used to arrive at a spelling attempt. Has the pupil relied on phonic, orthographic or morphemic knowledge?
Spelling Knowledge a pupil may have difficulty with
Information can be drawn from an independent piece of writing or from dictated sentences. This will provide evidence of specific areas of difficulty, for example, the spelling of high frequency words, spelling rules, punctuation, letter formation or phoneme-grapheme correspondence.
Phonological/ phoneme-grapheme difficulties:
Insecure morphological awareness:
Orthographic / spelling rules:
Areas to Observe and assess in Writing | Teacher Comments |
---|---|
Writing own name | |
Writing the alphabet | |
Number and choice of words known (written within 1 minute) | |
Overall assessment - how did the pupil approach the task?
| |
Word choice
| |
Sentence Construction
| |
Punctuation
| |
Handwriting and presentation:
| |
Spelling:
|
It is important that the teacher checks for confusion between the terms ‘names’ and ‘sounds’ in relation to letters and identifies any letters causing confusion. It is also important to check for reversals or inversions and the time taken to respond to teacher instructions.
The Literacy Service Team can be contacted for advice and information specific to children and young people who have, or may have, learning difficulties in literacy and dyslexia.