Assessing Reading Disabilities: Myths, Models, and Measures

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Assessing Reading Disabilities Myths, Models,
and Measures

• Natalie Rathvon, Ph.D.

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What Well Cover

• Developments and issues in the assessment of
  reading disabilities
• A research-based model for assessing reading
  problems
• Case examples
• Resources in reading disabilities, assessment,
  and intervention

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Myths about Reading Disabilities

• The fundamental cause of reading disabilities is
  a deficit in visual processing.
• Reading achievement that is significantly lower
  than cognitive ability is indicative of the
  presence of a reading disability.
• Poor readers with and without IQ-achievement
  discrepancies differ in their performance on word
  recognition and decoding tests.

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More Myths about RD

• Every individual with a reading problem has a
  reading disability.
• The test scores of individuals with RD show more
  variability than the scores of nondisabled
  individuals.
• Placement in special education resource rooms
  improves the reading performance of students
  identified as RD.

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Facts about Reading Disabilities

• RD affects at least 80 of the LD population.
• There is more empirical evidence regarding cause,
  course, and effective treatment for RD than any
  other LD.
• There is now a consensus that phonologically
  based processes constitute the core deficit in
  most RD.

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Scary Statistics

• 88 of children who are poor readers at the end
  of first grade are poor readers at the end of
  elementary school.
• 75 of poor readers who are not identified until
  3rd grade never catch up, regardless of the
  length and type of remedial services they
  receive.

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Advances in Understanding RD

• Key deficit in RD/dyslexia a domain-specific
  process rather than a process operating across a
  variety of domains
• Phonological core hypothesis poor readers have
  incompletely specified representations of words
  and their constituent sounds (phonemes) in
  long-term memory
• Chief problem for poor readers difficulty
  acquiring accurate, fluent word identification
  skills (word-level reading skills).

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Types of Poor Readers
Students with specific phonological processing
problems
Students with global language deficits
Reading Performance Problem
Attentional Problems
Disruptive Behavior Problems
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Problems in RD Diagnosis

• Without consensus on the cognitive markers for
  RD, diagnosis became an exclusionary process.
• IQ was measured to rule out the possibility that
  reading problems resulted from low intelligence.
• Traditional assessment approaches made it
  difficult to distinguish RD from other problems
  contributing to poor reading performance.
• The Unmotivated Child How to Help Your
  Underachiever Become a Successful Student

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Diagnostic Problems, II

• Children must fail for several years to display
  an ability-achievement discrepancy.
• Reduced reading lowers ability scores for older
  examinees (Matthew effects).
• Both discrepant and nondiscrepant poor readers
  have phonological deficits and do not differ on
  word-level reading tests.
• Finding a discrepancy does not provide
  information about which reading components are
  impaired and need remediation.

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A Really Big Problem Inequity of Services

• In current practice, it is the size of the
  discrepancy between general intelligence and
  reading ability rather than the absolute level of
  reading ability that leads to a diagnosis of
  reading disability. (Torgesen Wagner, 1998)

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Myths about Reading Assessment

• A valid and reliable test is equally valid and
  reliable for all examinees.
• All measures of the same reading component yield
  similar results for the same examinee.
• All examiners using the same tests will obtain
  similar results and come to similar diagnostic
  conclusions for the same examinee.

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Does Tim (Grade 1) have a reading problem?
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Why does this happen?

• Tests vary in terms of technical adequacy and
  psychometric characteristics.
• Examiners vary in the manner in which they
• Administer tests and record responses (examiner
  variance)
• Score and interpret results (interscorer/
  interpreter variance)
• Early Reading Assessment A Practitioners
  Handbook

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Reading Assessment Models

• Traditional
• Standard battery (one size fits all)
• Assumes reading problems arise from internal
  child deficits
• Designed to provide a categorical label for
  educational programming

• Component-based
• Targets domains related to the identified
  deficits
• Assumes most reading problems arise from
  experiential and/or instructional deficits
• Designed to provide information for guiding
  instruction

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10 Key Reading Components

• Cognitive-linguistic Variables
• Phonological processing
• Rapid naming
• Orthographic processing
• Oral language

• Literacy Skills
• Print awareness
• Alphabet knowledge
• Single word reading
• Contextual reading
• Reading comprehension
• Written language

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Identified Deficit
Comprehension
Fluency
Phonics
Vocabulary
Reading-Related Cognitive Abilities
Phonemic Awareness
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Considerations in Selecting Assessments

• Technical adequacy Psychometric soundness
• Usability Degree to which practitioners can
  actually use a measure in applied settings

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Key Technical Adequacy Features

• Norms
• Test floors
• Item gradients
• Reliability
• Validity

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The Case of Darla-- PALS Screening Fall of
Grade 1
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PALS Screening Spring of Grade 1
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Diagnostic AssessmentJune of Grade 1
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The Rest of the Picture

• Limited fluency (28 WCPM in grade- level text)
• CBM in Oral Reading
• Attentional and persistence problems
• Can I take the test home?
• Parental illness and family distress
• Diagnosis? Severe decoding problem obscured by a
  small memorized sight vocabulary and good
  language skills

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Increasing the Validity of Reading Assessments

• Begin with measures targeting domains directly
  related to the referral problem.
• Supplement norm-referenced measures with
  criterion-referenced measures to ensure adequate
  coverage and increase instructionally relevant
  information.
• Know the psychometric strengths and limitations
  of each measure you use.

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Increasing Validity, II

• Evaluate the presence of attentional and behavior
  problems.
• Key variables in response to intervention
• Assess environmental and instructional variables.
  
• Does the student have a reading disability or an
  experiential/instructional disability?

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Instructional Disability?
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The Golden Rule of Assessment

• The best designed assessment with the most
  reliable and valid measures administered by the
  best trained examiner wont change a childs
  reading trajectory . . . unless someone in the
  childs life does something different.
• Effective School Interventions Strategies for
  Enhancing Academic Achievement and Social
  Competence

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Selected Resources

• AERA, APA, NCME. (1999). Standards for
  educational and psychological testing.
  Washington DC AERA. www.apa.org
• Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.
  www.unl.edu/buros
• Catts, H. Kamhi, A. (Eds.). Language and
  reading disabilities. Boston Allyn Bacon.
  www.abacon.com
• Mather, N., Jaffe, L. (2003).
  Woodcock-Johnson III Recommendations and
  reports. New York Wiley. www.wiley.com
• Rathvon, N. (2004). Early Reading Assessment A
  Practitioners Handbook. New York Guilford.
  www.guilford.com
• Rathvon, N. (1999). Effective School
  Interventions Strategies for Enhancing
  Achievement and Social Competence. New York
  Guilford.
• Rathvon, N. (1996). The Unmotivated Child How
  to Help Your Underachiever Become a Successful
  Student. New York Simon Schuster.
  www.simonsays.com

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Thank You!