ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

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84 ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009 ACQuiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing
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the Gray oral reading test without reading it: Why compre­
hension tests should not include passage-independent
items. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10(4), 363–380.
Keenan, J. M., Betjemann, R. S., & Olson, R. K. (2008).
Reading comprehension tests vary in the skills they assess:
Differential dependence on decoding and oral compre­
hension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 12(3), 281–300.
Leslie, L., & Caldwell, J. (2001). Qualitative reading
inventory–3. NY: Addison Wesley Longman.
Mossenson, L., Hill, P., & Masters, G. (1987). Test of
Reading Comprehension TORCH. Melbourne: Australian
Council for Educational Research.
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difficulties: The validity and utility of current measures of
reading skill. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 67,
359–370.
Neale, M. D. (1988). Neale analysis of reading ability–
Revised. Hawthorn, Vic.: Australian Council for Educational
Research.
Neale, M. D. (1999). Neale Analysis of Reading Ability
(3rd ed.). Melbourne, Vic.: Australian Council for Educational
Research.
Roberts, J. A., & Scott, K. A. (2006). The Simple View of
Reading: Assessment and intervention. Topics in Language
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predictors for the at-risk reader: A review. International
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Spooner, A. L. R., Baddeley, A. D., & Gathercole, S.
E. (2004). Can reading accuracy and comprehension be
separated in the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability? British
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and listening comprehension (see Box 1), the following
routine may be recommended in clinical practice:
• administer separate assessments to determine a child’s
skills in word recognition and listening comprehension; and
• administer a reading comprehension test that requires
the child to read passages and answer open-ended
questions following the reading.
Other issues that need to be taken into consideration involve
a child’s general world knowledge as well as his test-taking
strategies.
Further research is clearly required to determine the
passage dependency of the NARA. In addition, it seems
likely that comprehension of some of the passages in the
NARA will rely on previous experience (or world knowledge).
For example, the passage about scuba diving will be much
harder to understand for children who have never heard of
this activity. Finally, some children may do better reading
aloud and some may prefer to read silently. At this stage it
is not clear how a child’s preference may affect their test
performance.
References
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Marleen Westerveld is a senior lecturer at Massey University in
Auckland and a senior research fellow at Canterbury University in
Christchurch, New Zealand. She has been a practising paediatric
speech-language therapist for more than 20 years and has
extensive experience in working with children with language and/or
literacy difficulties. Marleen’s clinical and research interests include
spontaneous language sampling, narrative language development
and reading disorders. Marleen and her family live in Brisbane, Qld.
Correspondence to:
Dr Marleen Westerveld
School of Education
Speech and Language Therapy programme
Private Bag 102 904
NSMC, Auckland 0745, New Zealand
email: ;