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Notes on the downloads

Rev 1

6 October

We advise you again that you are not diagnosing the child; you are
observing him or her and recording some notes which will help you
adapt your teaching, and communicate with other staff, specialists
and parents.

Regular words

The GPCs are straightforward. Most children will have too many difficulties
with these.


Irregular words

The GPCs of these words are complex and do not follow the GPCs rules of
English. Many children will have some difficulties with the words that are not
already stored in long-term memory.

Ideally, the test should be made on a child of about 8 or 9. If you cannot find a
child, try an adult.

These words must be read using the direct access route, as their orthographic
and phonological representations must have been stored in long-term
memory for accurate reading and spelling.

Note: using this list is one part of the Peer Assessment, where there is more
guidance.

As well as time and accuracy in the task, look out for the type of mistakes
made, if any. You may wish to refresh your knowledge by listening to the
video lectures again (‘Models of reading’ and ‘Identification – Primary’)

The type of mistake made is called ‘regularization’. The child is reading the
word as if it were a regular word.


Pseudowords

These are words that could be words in English, that is they obey the
orthographic rules of English, but they are not real words.

Because they will never have been seen before, the child must use the
phonological decoding route to pronounce them. Therefore you are testing the
upper, slower path.

 

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You tell the child in advance that these words are not real words but you are
asking him/her to read exactly what is written as best as he/she can.

You could time the child and assess accuracy of decoding.

The type of mistake made is called ‘lexicalization’. Take the third word: the
child may guess that this should be ‘parsnip’ and so he/she is not really
decoding accurately.


Rapid naming test

This test is mentioned in several lectures. It has been widely accepted as a
reliable measure of the speed of access to the name of an object.

Slowness in this test has been well correlated with difficulties in phonological
manipulation. You will recollect from Vincent’s lecture in the first week the
importance of automatization, which is linked to speed and accuracy of
reading.

First make sure that the child can name the objects. You can make up your
own chart of pictures and so you can test in the child’s native language. We
have chosen here to select a small number of different objects and ordered
them randomly.

Try it with several children and measure the time they take to name each
object in the chart, going from left to right and top to bottom.

Dyslexic learners have difficulties in accessing their phonological
representations so they will be about twice as slow as the non-dyslexic
learners.


Eye tracking test

This is language-independent. Ask the child to find each bell and circle it.
Allow two minutes. Express the result as (number found)/35 x 100.

Also observe and note what search strategy he or she uses, e.g. just looking
randomly all over the page, or with a plan. The child may ask for a ruler or use
the edge of another piece of paper – this is OK!


Digit span test

This is language-independent. It tests short-term memory, a vital function in
grammatical processing and many other skills, e.g. taking in a stream of
instructions.

 

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Ask the child to repeat each string of numbers from the shortest to the
longest. Stop when they make two mistakes. Then ask them to repeat the
string in the reverse order; typically this will be two less than in the forward
direction.

An adult without learning issues will easily manage seven digits forward.

You will usually find a distinct difference between children with and without
reading problems.


Visual discovery: ‘f’

The purpose is to find the grapheme, in its different forms (upper case, lower
case, different fonts) amongst other very different graphemes. It trains the
eyes to track. As shown in the film, you don’t ask them to call out the name
but simply to find them systematically and circle them (‘catch them’ as Vincent
says).


Tracking training: ‘f’s

This grapheme can appear single, or double, and in different parts of words,
and may be said in different ways.


‘Dotting test’

This is a simple adaptation of the well-known ‘pegging test’ used to assess
motor skills. Instructions are included on the chart.


Colored-lined paper

This is used to teach cursive writing. The body of the letter should be in the
middle, the descenders to the bottom line, the ascenders to the top.

As Vincent says, you can choose different colors, e.g. the top blue for sky and
the bottom brown for earth. It is not demonstrated in the film.


Phonics progression charts

These are built on the principle of ‘structure’, that is going from the simpler to
the more complex, ensuring that each step has been grasped before going to
the next. For example, teaching the more common occurrences of the sound
matched to ‘f’ before ‘ph’.

Also making sure that there is a mix of going over what has been learnt and
what is new.

 

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Child observation chart

Note: using this chart is one part of the Peer Assessment. (In this case, do not
identify the child; simply give a few initials or fictitious name. Otherwise for
your own school records you can put in the name.)

The chart will be useful in methodically building a profile of the child. You can
re-assess after, say, six months and compare both charts.

You will not be able to complete the last sections for every child.