ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

Literacy

Measuring reading comprehension ability in children Factors influencing test performance Marleen Westerveld

To obtain a complete picture of children’s language abilities during the school years, the speech pathologist’s assessment battery should contain a test of reading comprehension. There are many tests to choose from, however, and evidence suggests that not all tests tap the same underlying construct. The aims of this article are twofold. It will first present a brief summary of the types of reading comprehension assessments that are available. Using the Simple View of Reading as a framework, this article will then provide insight into the implications these different types of reading assessments may have for diagnostic purposes. T he important role of speech pathologists in the assessment and treatment of individuals/children with reading disabilities has gained increasing acceptance (e.g., Serry, Rose, & Liamputtong, 2008), as it is now widely recognised that weaknesses in spoken language skills underlie most reading difficulties (Kamhi & Catts, 2005, p.1). Therefore, to obtain a complete picture of children’s language abilities during the school years, international best practice indicates assessment should not only occur across the domains of morphosyntax, semantics and phonology, but should also include both spoken and written modalities (Gillon, Moriarty, & Schwarz, 2006). Although most speech pathologists are expected to feel confident about the types of assessments that are needed to assess a child’s spoken language skills, choosing the appropriate reading comprehension assessment tool may be less straightforward. The Simple View of Reading – A reading component model The Simple View of Reading provides a useful basic model for understanding the skill domains that underlie reading comprehension. It proposes that skilled reading comprehension is the product of two independent components, namely word recognition (decoding) and listening (or language) comprehension (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990). Difficulties in word recognition may be reflected in measures of phonological awareness (which assess underlying skills), as well as word

or non-word reading accuracy and efficiency. In contrast, difficulties in listening comprehension are reflected in a range of oral language areas including measures of vocabulary, verbal memory, and language processing. The independent contributions of word recognition and listening comprehension to reading comprehension change during the course of reading development. In the early stages, word recognition and listening comprehension are unrelated, and although both skills are associated with reading comprehension, word recognition shows the strongest correlation (Catts, Hogan, & Adlof, 2005). Consistent with a limited capacity working memory processing model (see Baddeley, 2003), it seems likely that the slow and/or inaccurate word recognition shown by beginning readers utilises much of the available processing resources with little remaining for text comprehension. In later stages of reading development this pattern changes. The strength of the relationship between word recognition and listening comprehension increases and by eighth grade listening comprehension is the dominant factor contributing to reading comprehension (Catts et al., 2005). Based on the Simple View of Reading, three main subgroups of children with reading comprehension difficulties can be identified: • children who have difficulties in word recognition alone (often referred to as dyslexic or specific poor decoders; see Catts, Adlof, & Weismer, 2006), • children who have difficulties in listening comprehension but not in word recognition (referred to as having a specific comprehension deficit), and • children who have deficits in both word recognition and listening comprehension (referred to as demonstrating a mixed reading disability). Differentiating between these different subgroups of poor readers and their associated patterns of weaknesses is critical in determining appropriate targets of intervention (Catts, Hogan, & Fey, 2003, see also Roberts & Scott, 2006). Reading comprehension assessments Although the main aim of standardised reading comprehension assessments is to determine a child’s level of functioning, it is important to understand that different tests may tap into different underlying components or skill areas (Cutting & Scarborough, 2006; Nation & Snowling, 1997). More importantly, depending on the type of assessment that is used and whether a child demonstrates strengths and

This article has been peer- reviewed Keywords reading com­ prehension school-aged children Simple View of Reading

Marleen Westerveld

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ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009

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