ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

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 Baddeley, A. (2003). Working memory and language: An over- view. Journal of Communication Disorders , 36 (3), 189–208. Bornholt, L. J. (2002). An analysis of children’s task strategies for a test of reading comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology , 27 (1), 80–98. Bowyer-Crane, C., & Snowling, M. J. (2005). Assessing children’s inference generation: What do tests of reading comprehension measure? British Journal of Educational Psychology , 75 , 189–201. Cain, K., & Oakhill, J. (2006). Assessment matters: Issues in the measurement of reading comprehension. British Journal of Educational Psychology , 76 , 697–708. Catts, H. W., Adlof, S. M., & Weismer, S. E. (2006). Language deficits in poor comprehenders: A case for the simple view of reading. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research , 49 (2), 278–293. Catts, H. W., Hogan, T. P., & Adlof, S. M. (2005). Developmental changes in reading and reading disabilities. In H. W. Catts & A. G. Kamhi (Eds.), Connections between language and reading disabilities (pp. 25–40). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Catts, H. W., Hogan, T. P., & Fey, M. E. (2003). Subgrouping poor readers on the basis of individual differences in reading-related abilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities , 36 (2), 151–164. Cutting, L. E., & Scarborough, H. S. (2006). Prediction of reading comprehension: Relative contributions of word recognition, language proficiency, and other cognitive skills can depend on how comprehension is measured. Scientific Studies of Reading , 10 (3), 277–299. Gillon, G., Moriarty, B., & Schwarz, I. (2006). An international literature review of best practices in speech and language therapy: Assessment and intervention practices for children with speech and language impairment . Christchurch, NZ: Department of Communication Disorders. University of Canterbury. Gough, P. B., & Tunmer, W. E. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education , 7 (1), 6–10. Hambrick, D. Z., & Engle, R. W. (2002). Effects of domain knowledge, working memory capacity, and age on cognitive performance: An investigation of the knowledge-is-power hypothesis. Cognitive Psychology , 44 (4), 339–387.

Hoover, W. A., & Gough, P. B. (1990). The simple view of reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal , 2 , 127–160. Kamhi, A. G., & Catts, H. W. (2005). Language and reading: Convergences and divergences. In H. W. Catts & A. G. Kamhi (Eds.), Language and reading disabilities (2nd ed., pp. 1–25). Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Keenan, J. M., & Betjemann, R. S. (2006). Comprehending 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. Nation, K., & Snowling, M. (1997). Assessing reading 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 Disorders , 26 (2), 127–143. Serry, T., Rose, M., & Liamputtong, P. (2008). Oral language predictors for the at-risk reader: A review. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology , 10 (6), 392–403. 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 Journal of Educational Psychology , 74 , 187–204. Wechsler, D. (2001). WIAT-II: Wechsler Individual Achievement Test – Australian (2nd ed.). Sydney, NSW.: Pearson Psych Corp. Wiederholt, J. L., & Bryant, B. R. (2001). GORT 4: Gray Oral Reading Tests (4th ed.). Austin, TX: PRO-ED. Woodcock, R. W. (1998). Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests – Revised . Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. 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: m.westerveld@massey.ac.nz ; m.westerveld@gmail.com

84

ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009

ACQ uiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing