MidYIS Reading Test:MidYIS Reading Test:Assessment of Phonological & Assessment of Phonological &

Phonic AbilitiesPhonic Abilities

Bernardine King

SummarySummary

1. Dyslexia – what is it?

2. Theoretical rationale behind the test sections.

3. What will the results look like?

4. Limitations of test – what can it be used for?

Purpose of TestPurpose of Test Part of a new reading test for

MidYIS intended to assess various levels of literacy ability:

Phonological & phonic skills. Providing information useful in deciding who may need specialist assessment for dyslexia, etc.

Vocabulary – picture and sound.Comprehension - component skills, e.g.

inference making.

Rose Report, June 2009Rose Report, June 2009

What is Dyslexia?

The review’s working definition:

1. A learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate

and fluent word reading and spelling.

What is Dyslexia?What is Dyslexia?

2. Characteristic difficulties in:phonological awareness verbal memory verbal processing speed.

What is Dyslexia?What is Dyslexia?

3. Occurs across the range of intellectual abilities.

4. A continuum, not a distinct category.

5. No clear cut-off points.

Pre-alphabetic

Partial alphabetic

Full alphabetic

ConsolidatedIncreasing alphabetic skill

Ehri’s phases of ReadingDevelopment

eg m in mcDonalds

Letter-sound links:

exception spellingsAll links including

All regular spellings

Some = ‘partial’

None, iconic reading:

•Letter confusions, b/d, p/q/

•Nonword reading problems:

‘pib’ ‘dalop’

•Salient letters of words attended to, eg 1st & last letters

Partial Alphabetic Phase

Rationale Behind the Test Rationale Behind the Test SectionsSections

Test phonological and phonic skills.Phonology- word sounds.Phonological processing deficit in

dyslexia.Phonic problems – relating graphemes

(letters & letter groups) to the corresponding sounds (phonemes).

Tests of Phonology- Made-up word (nonword) reading,

adaptive test.‘Sounds’ test – identifying sounds

in words.Phonological Short Term Memory-

forward & backward digit span.

PhonicsPhonicsNonword reading- relating graphemes

to phonemes.‘Sounds’- sounds to letters, as in

spelling.Pseudohomophone test- made-up

words (pseudowords) that sound like real words, e.g. phocks = fox. Also, test of phonology.

Pseudohomophone TestPseudohomophone Test Pseudo = made-up word Homophone = sounds like Requires many visual and auditory skills:

e.g. reading ‘phocks’

grapheme separation: ‘ph’ ‘o’ ‘ck’ ‘s’

grapheme-phoneme conversion:

‘ph’> /f/ ‘o’> /o/ ‘ck’ > /k/ ‘s’> /s/

Phoneme blending:

/f/ /o/ /k/ /s/

Then..

Pseudohomophone Test cont.Pseudohomophone Test cont.

Match sound package of blended phonemes with items in known sound vocabulary.

/f/ + /o/ + /k/ + /s/ = ‘fox’

Added difficulty – word search format.

Visual search problems in dyslexia.

Choose 5 out of 16 on each of 5 screens.

GuessingGuessing

Nonword reading: 1 in 4 chance. Forced choice multiple choice.

‘Sounds’: 1 in 4 chance. Forced choice multiple choice.

Word Search (pseudohomophones): 5 in 16 chance. Can move on without answering.

MemoryMemory

Problems with phonological STM common in dyslexia. Order problems- e.g. telephone numbers.

Backward digit span –measure of working memory.

Short backward digit span often found in dyslexia.

Design of Sub TestsDesign of Sub Tests

‘Nonword reading’ and ‘Sounds’ – adaptive, to:

match difficulty of items to student ability;

Reduce assessment load and time.

‘Lyrebird’ Test – an adaptation of a spoken digit span test for computer.

Lack of visual distraction- black screen with fixation spot.

Response entered on screen.Max number of digits = 8, to reduce

assessment load and time.

Design of Sub TestsDesign of Sub Tests

Non-Verbal ReasoningNon-Verbal Reasoning

22 questions8 minutes maximum

344

Uses & Limitations of the TestUses & Limitations of the TestAudit of phonological abilities of a

cohort.Shows strengths & weaknesses.Does not diagnose dyslexia.Cannot identify ‘recovered’ dyslexic

readers.Unlikely to identify visual / surface

dyslexia.Shows marked phonological / phonic

difficulties.