The 4 types of readersThe Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) is that language comprehension processes and word recognition processes are critical for reading development. The diagram on the right shows 4 quadrants, each with different combinations of language comprehension and word recognition skills relating to 4 different reader types, regardless of age. The combination of poor word recognition with good comprehension represents the 'compensator' or 'poor decoder' or 'dyslexic' reader type.
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Source: Cain, K. (2010). Reading development and difficulties. Toronto: Wiley.
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The purpose of assessment should be to inform intervention
After years of reading research, the most current thinking is that reading skills exist on a continuum with good readers at one end, and poor readers at the other end and that there is no separate, unique kind of reading difficulty like what Dyslexia has always been thought to be. Therefore, the most effective literacy assessment is one that identifies a learner's individual profile of literacy strengths and weaknesses - specifically to inform intervention rather than diagnosis.
To ensure the highest level of literacy and academic success. we recommend assesment for intervention and individually tailored intervention as soon as a literacy gap starts to show - especially when literacy acquisition difficulties show up straight away at the outset of formal literacy instruction.
To ensure the highest level of literacy and academic success. we recommend assesment for intervention and individually tailored intervention as soon as a literacy gap starts to show - especially when literacy acquisition difficulties show up straight away at the outset of formal literacy instruction.
Need to catch up before the end of Year 3
Everything changes in Year 4, when children are no longer learning to read and write and are having to use their (assumed) reading and writing skills to learn and advance in the academic curriculum.
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Avoiding The Matthew Effect
If children do not catch up before the end of Year 3, they will end up reading less and therefore have less opportunity to learn vocabulary, background knowledge, and information about how written text is structured. As a result poor readers slowly get worse rather than better, and over time the gap between poor readers and good readers keepgs getting bigger instead of smaller. |
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Spelling is telling
A child's spelling ability is a more revealing measure of their literacy skills than their reading ability. When there is a mismatch between a child's reading and spelling abilities and they read better than they can spell, this is an indication that they are probably relying on whole-word recognition and visual memory to read instead of productively decoding / encoding words using code knowledge. Their spelling mistakes reveal what code knowledge is not being applied or perhaps is even missing altogether. These children tend to approach literacy tasks as memorisation tasks and do a great job when given word lists. You can hear them say things like "I don't know what that word says because I haven't seen it before" or "I don't remember what that word is." When faced with unfamiliar words, they use a guessing strategy and ask others to tell them if they got it right. There may not be much time left to make sure they catch up by the end of Year 3, so we recommend specialist literacy assessment to fast track the right intervention.
Solving the mystery of your child's literacy difficulties
If your child is continuing to struggle with reading and/or spelling despite getting evidence-based Structured Literacy instruction at school, additional literacy support from the Resource Teacher of Literacy, small group or individual Teacher Aide support, time at the computer using software programmes like Lexia and Steps Web, instruction in other remedial literacy programmes like Reading Recovery and Toe by Toe, or extra tutoring from KipMcGrath - then something is being missed and they need specialist literacy assessment and carefully tailored, individual intervention to catch them up by the end of Year 3.
A child's spelling ability is a more revealing measure of their literacy skills than their reading ability. When there is a mismatch between a child's reading and spelling abilities and they read better than they can spell, this is an indication that they are probably relying on whole-word recognition and visual memory to read instead of productively decoding / encoding words using code knowledge. Their spelling mistakes reveal what code knowledge is not being applied or perhaps is even missing altogether. These children tend to approach literacy tasks as memorisation tasks and do a great job when given word lists. You can hear them say things like "I don't know what that word says because I haven't seen it before" or "I don't remember what that word is." When faced with unfamiliar words, they use a guessing strategy and ask others to tell them if they got it right. There may not be much time left to make sure they catch up by the end of Year 3, so we recommend specialist literacy assessment to fast track the right intervention.
Solving the mystery of your child's literacy difficulties
If your child is continuing to struggle with reading and/or spelling despite getting evidence-based Structured Literacy instruction at school, additional literacy support from the Resource Teacher of Literacy, small group or individual Teacher Aide support, time at the computer using software programmes like Lexia and Steps Web, instruction in other remedial literacy programmes like Reading Recovery and Toe by Toe, or extra tutoring from KipMcGrath - then something is being missed and they need specialist literacy assessment and carefully tailored, individual intervention to catch them up by the end of Year 3.
Achieving maximum literacy success
We offer subsidised, specialist literacy assessments ($185) for children age 4 and over. We get to the bottom of reading and spelling / writing problems, so we know exactly where to start with intervention to get meaningful literacy progress happening straight away.
Our approach to intervention includes the following evidence-based components as illustrated by the diagrams below:
Cultivating a brain-friendly environment
We tailor all learning content and lessons to individual strengths and needs. We support learners to understand how their brains work, what things are difficult and easy for their brains to do, what supports them to deliver their best work, and how to advocate for and independently use these supports. We carefully identify skills and compensatory strategies a learner needs to learn, and we design external supports and work-arounds to match the specific needs arising from their unique combination of literacy difficulties, underlying skill deficits, and any associated processing difficulties (poor retrieval, orthographic mapping, working memory, etc.) to enable maximum spelling, reading, and writing success.
Our approach to intervention includes the following evidence-based components as illustrated by the diagrams below:
- Phonological awareness and phoneme awareness instruction.
- Structured Literacy instruction that is explicit, systematic, and cumulative. We teach the most frequently occurring code and most consistent spelling rules for getting on with story writing first. We teach confusing alternate spellings last.
- Spelling-specific instruction, because research has found that for young children spelling supports learning to read, and for older children learning about meaningful releationships among words and their spellings contributes to vocabulary growth and reading comprehension.
- Structured Word Inquiry instruction to teach academic vocabulary including prefixes and suffixes, Latin roots, Greek combining forms, word families, and word meanings.
- Meta-cognitive strategy approach that teaches productive use of spelling knowledge for actively problem-solving how to read and spell new words and reinforces that spelling is a thinking job, not a guessing or remembering job. We teach learners to think about their thinking by giving them tools to reflect and grow their self-awareness and start understanding how they think, feel, and act - so that they can become more efficient at focusing on learning and their overall engagement and learning improves. We tailor all learning content and lessons to individual strengths and needs, and we use visual strategies to support correct learning from the beginning and to develop independent problem-solving, monitoring, referencing, and self-correction skills.
Cultivating a brain-friendly environment
We tailor all learning content and lessons to individual strengths and needs. We support learners to understand how their brains work, what things are difficult and easy for their brains to do, what supports them to deliver their best work, and how to advocate for and independently use these supports. We carefully identify skills and compensatory strategies a learner needs to learn, and we design external supports and work-arounds to match the specific needs arising from their unique combination of literacy difficulties, underlying skill deficits, and any associated processing difficulties (poor retrieval, orthographic mapping, working memory, etc.) to enable maximum spelling, reading, and writing success.
Some more literacy infographics we like:
Source: hangingaroundinprimary.com
Ehri's phases of word reading development (1991)
Henry, M, K. (2010). Unlocking literacy: Effective decoding and spelling instruction. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
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