Screening Tests To Identify Children With Reading Problems Are Being Misapplied, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2007) — Screening tests widely used to identify children with reading problems are being misapplied, landing students in the wrong instructional level and delaying treatment for their true difficulties, says new research from National-Louis University and the University of Maryland.

The researchers find that oral reading tests fail to distinguish between children who can’t understand words on a page and those who have language problems that make it difficult to prove their reading competence verbally. Children with these so-called “word-finding” difficulties can’t manage to say out loud what they read on the page.

The study recommends silent reading tests and limited use of oral ones.

The researchers estimate that as many as ten percent of all children may have these speech language problems. Roughly one-in-five children have some kind of learning difficulty, and nearly half of these have the “word-finding” problem...

This from Science Daily.

This research was published in the November 2007 issue of “Reading Psychology.” Adapted from materials provided by University of Maryland, College Park. University of Maryland, College Park (2007, November 25). Screening Tests To Identify Children With Reading Problems Are Being Misapplied, Study Shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 30, 2007, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2007/11/071123210103.htm