ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

Research updates

New Castles and Coltheart reading test available online Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science Anne Castles, Genevieve McArthur and Max Coltheart

Two key processes that children need to acquire when learning to read are sounding-out ability and whole word recognition ability (see e.g., Jackson & Coltheart, 2001). Sounding-out ability involves converting printed letters into their corresponding sounds, and is best assessed by measuring a child’s accuracy in reading aloud non-words (nonsense words), such as gop , since these cannot be read by any other means. Whole word recognition ability involves accessing stored knowledge about familiar written words and is best assessed by measuring accuracy in reading aloud irregular words, such as yacht , since these cannot be read correctly via sounding-out rules. Castles and Coltheart (1993) developed a test designed to directly assess how well children can use the sounding-out and the whole word recognition procedures. The test consisted of 30 irregular words and 30 non-words for assessing each of the key reading processes. Thirty regular

and other cognitive tests. The tests can be administered online to one or more children, and the results stored in an individual and secure test page. Alternatively, hardcopies of the test materials can be downloaded as pdfs from MOTIf in order to administer the tests offline. We hope that this modified test and the new facility for administering it will assist professionals in assessing key components of word recognition ability in children. References Castles, A., Coltheart, M., Larson, L., Jones, P., Saunders, S., & McArthur, G. (2009). Assessing the basic components of reading: A revision of the Castles and Coltheart test with new norms. Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties, 14, 67–88. Jackson, N.E., & Coltheart, M. (2001). Routes to reading success and failure . New York: Psychology Press. Castles, A., & Coltheart, M. (1993). Varieties of developmental dyslexia. Cognition , 47 , 149–180.

words, like cat were also included. These kinds of words can be read accurately by either sounding-out or whole word recognition and so provide a measure of the combined functioning of the two processes. There were, however, two major limitations of this original version of the Castles and Coltheart test. First, the test did not have a stopping rule. As a result, even a child who could successfully read aloud only a few of the simplest items on the test had to be presented with all 90 items. This was both time-consuming for the tester and potentially stressful for a child who could only read a few items. Second, for the older age groups, the test was subject to ceiling effects, particularly for the regular words and the non-words. We have now developed a modified version of the test to address these limitations. The new test contains an expanded set of items, with 40 each of regular words, irregular words and non-words, rather than the original 30 items of each type. The new items extend the upper end of the difficulty range of the test, making it less susceptible to ceiling effects than the original version. The test also incorporates a stopping-rule, which makes administration of the test less time-consuming, and removes the stress on children who can only read a few items. The test has been normed on over 1000 Australian children. More details about the development and norming of the test can be found in Castles et al. (2009). The test is free of charge and is available to teachers, professionals and researchers at our new Macquarie Online Test Interface (MOTIf: http://www.motif.org.au). MOTIf is an online platform for the administration and scoring of this

Correspondence to: Professor Anne Castles Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science (MACCS) Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109 phone: 02 9850 4860 fax: 02 9850 6059 email: acastles@maccs.mq.edu.au web: http://www.maccs.mq.edu.au/members/profile. htm?memberID=4

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ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au