DIAGNOSTIC TEST OF WORD READING PROCESSES - … · The Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes is a test of ... individual stanine score for each of its three component parts

DIAGNOSTICTEST OFWORD

READING PROCESSES

Teeeacchheer’ss Guide

Forum for Research in Literacy and Language, Institute of Education

Evaluation Pack

Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes

Contents Introduction to the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes 03

Example reading cards 04

An essential tutorial 06

Examples 13

Order form 16

2

DIAGNOSTIC

TEST OFWORD

READING

PROCESSES

Teeeacchheer’ss Guide

Forum for Research in Literacy and Language, Institute of Education

Welcome to the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes

Evaluation Pack

3

Introduction to the


The Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes is a test of word and non-word reading for children

aged 6 to 12.

The test comprises 90 items divided as follows:

• 30 exception words which provide a measure of lexical-semantic processes;

• 30 non-words which provide a measure of phonological recoding processes;

• 30 regular words which can be read by either process.

It is the first test to:

• match words in the regular word and non-word sets by compiling non-words from segments of

regular words;

• match the regular and exception word sets according to their frequency of occurrence in books

read by school children in the UK;

• provide normative data obtained from a large and representative sample of children from

Reception/P1 to Y7/S1 in schools in England.

Quick and easy to administer, score and interpret, the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes

makes available to teachers a diagnostic tool that has long been used in research studies, and that

enables precise specification of the areas of difficulty experienced by individual children in developing

fluent and automatic word reading.

Developed by the Forum for Research in Literacy and Language and used as a research tool over

several years, the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes standardisation was carried out in

2009 and 2011 and the test yields an overall standard age score, age equivalent scores and an

individual stanine score for each of its three component parts.


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Examplereadingcards

Ple

ase

note

: The

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Sam

ple

non-

wor

ds

Evaluation Pack

froll

mong

merfar

hister

nostchen

hunril

pringy

kitcess

bungentine

turpalow

NW2

EXC

do

bear

what

people

wolf

eye

country

wealth

rheumatism

beautiful

REG

frog

hill

monster

farmer

kitchen

nostril

hungry

princess

bungalow

turpentine

5

Ple

ase

note

: The

se a

re n

ot a

ctua

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ds fr

om th

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st, b

ut a

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Sam

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An essential tutorial

Introduction to the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes

What is involved in learning to read?There are two essential dimensions to learning to read: children must learn to recognise and understand written words, and they must learn to recover and interpret the literal and inferential meanings of texts. These two dimensions are encapsulated in the Simple View of Reading (Hoover and Gough, 1990).3

Figure 1.1: The Simple View of Reading

Language Comprehension

Processes

Language Comprehension

Processes

Word Recognition Processes

Word Recognition Processes

Poor

Poor

Good

Good

Each dimension within this simple framework is far from ‘simple’, and involves the development and use of complex cognitive processes – processes operating within the mind and brain.

3 Useful sources of information about the Simple View of Reading include: Adlof et al. (2006); Hoover and Gough (1990); Kendeou et al. (2009); Kirby and Savage (2008); Stuart et al. (2008). 6

Evaluation Pack

What does the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes assess?The test focuses on the cognitive processes that underlie the recognition and understanding of written words: the ‘word recognition’ dimension of the Simple View of Reading.

It does this by assessing pupils’ performance on three types of word: • Regular words, for example ‘meet’, ‘shampoo’, ‘catapult’, which conform to the

grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) rules of the language• Exception words, for example, ‘was’, ‘yacht’, ‘meringue’, which do not conform to

these GPC rules• Non-words, for example ‘brafe’, ‘meckton’, ‘shelibowt’, which are pronounceable

sequences of letters that do not exist as real words in the language.

What are these word reading processes?Over the past 50 years, there has been a huge amount of research devoted to understanding how people are able to recognise the individual sequences of letters that constitute each written word, and thereby gain access to the meaning and pronunciation of each word. Some areas of difference in detail remain between different theories. However, there is now a large measure of agreement that skilled readers have developed two interacting sets of processes that operate together on each written word. Therefore, pupils learning to read need to develop both sets of processes if they are to become skilled readers.

In order to remain impartial with respect to the remaining differences between competing theories, the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes uses the neutral terms ‘lexical-semantic” and ‘phonological’ to describe these two sets of interacting processes. To make best use of the test, you need to understand what each set of processes involves. A brief account is provided below.

What are lexical-semantic processes?Lexical-semantic processes depend upon accessing previously stored knowledge about words.

Long before they start to learn to read, children have already stored the meanings and pronunciations of thousands of words that they use in their daily lives. Where a word is already stored in a pupil’s oral vocabulary, developing lexical-semantic processes involves:

• storing knowledge of the letter sequence of the written form of the word • linking the letter sequence to its meaning.

Word meanings already stored in oral vocabulary are already linked to their pronunciation. This means that accessing the meaning of the word automatically triggers access to its pronunciation.

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However, reading soon becomes a major source of oral vocabulary development, and so pupils start to come across written words whose meanings and pronunciations are not already in their oral vocabulary. In these cases, developing lexical-semantic processes involves:

• storing knowledge of the letter sequence of the written word• inferring something of the word’s meaning from the context in which it occurs • working out a pronunciation for the word from its letter sequence • linking the letter sequence to the word’s meaning and pronunciation.

And, of course, unfamiliar words encountered in print may well be mispronounced: for example, ‘misled’ may become ‘mizzled’, and give rise to a new verb ‘to mizzle’ (as evidenced in the speech error ‘don’t mizzle me’).

Once the letter sequence of a previously unknown written word has been stored and linked to its meaning and pronunciation, on subsequent encounters that written word

will be recognised immediately on sight. Instant recognition leads to automatic and effortless recovery of the stored meaning and pronunciation. Lexical-semantic processing is extraordinarily fast and operates without any conscious awareness on the part of the skilled reader.

Lexical-semantic processes are involved in reading all words, both regular and exception.4 However, they are uniquely tapped by Exception Word Reading, as Exception Word Reading is only achieved through lexical-semantic processing. Therefore, Exception Word Reading is used in this test as the measure of lexical-semantic processes.

Importantly, the sequence of operations in lexical-semantic processing is from stored letter sequence to word meaning to word pronunciation. Thus, these processes allow us to distinguish between homophones like ‘sail’ and ‘sale’, even when we read them without any disambiguating context. The letter sequence ‘sail’ is linked to the meaning ‘an area of fabric used to catch the wind and propel a boat over water’, whereas the letter sequence ‘sale’ is linked to the meaning ‘the exchange of goods, property or services for an agreed sum of money or credit’.

4 The only requirement is that words should be familiar to the reader. That is, they must have been previously encountered in print sufficiently often for their letter sequences, meanings and pronunciations to have been stored. In skilled readers, one or two encounters with a written word are sufficient. For beginner readers, many more encounters are needed: some young beginner readers fail to recognise and understand written words that they have seen very many times previously (see, for example, Stuart et al., 2000). 8

Evaluation Pack

Figure 1.2: Sequence of operations in lexical-semantic processing

Writtenword

Writtenword

SAIL

/seɪl/

S-A-I-L

S-A-L-E

SALE

Access storedletter sequence

Access storedletter sequence

Access storedword meaning


Access storedword

pronunciation

Access storedword

pronunciation

‘an area of fabricused to catch thewind and propel

a boat overwater’

‘the exchange ofgoods, property

or services for anagreed sum of

money or credit’

What are phonological processes in reading?Phonological processes depend on the use of previously stored knowledge about correspondences between printed letters and letter groups (graphemes) and speech sounds (phonemes): that is, stored knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) rules. They are involved in reading regular words, whether or not these have been previously seen and stored, and non-words. Using phonological processes to read exception words would lead to a mispronunciation, for example reading ‘yacht’ to rhyme with ‘matched’. Phonological processes are uniquely tapped by Non-word Reading, because non-words do not exist as words in the language. They have not been seen before, and so their letter sequence cannot have been stored. They can only be read accurately by phonological processing. Therefore, Non-word Reading is used in the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes as the measure of phonological processing.

Development of phonological processes for word reading involves:• developing an understanding of the alphabetic principle, that phonemes in spoken

words are represented by graphemes in written words• developing explicit awareness of the sequence of phonemes that constitute each

spoken word• learning the correspondences between graphemes and phonemes

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• learning to recognise graphemes in written words• learning to blend phonemes into whole-word pronunciations.

Importantly, the sequence of operations in phonological processing is from letter sequences to grapheme-phoneme translation and phoneme blending, to word pronunciation and thence to word meaning.

Figure 1.3: Sequence of operations in phonological processing

Writtenword

SHAMPOO

sh-a-m-p-oo

Identifygraphemes

Blend phonemes


Translategraphemes to

phonemes

Access storedword

pronunciation

‘soap to washthe hair’

sh ➔ /ʃ/ a ➔ /a/ m ➔ /m/ p ➔ /p/oo ➔ /u/

/ʃ-a-m-p-u//ʃampu/

/ʃampu/

Developing and learning the necessary components for phonological processes to operate fluently can be a difficult task for some pupils. But phonological processes offer rich rewards for the reader. Learning a relatively small5 set of GPC rules allows the pupil to work out pronunciations for the increasing numbers of unfamiliar written words they encounter. The meanings of many of these words may already be stored in the pupil’s oral vocabulary. Thus, working out the pronunciation allows the pupil to access the meaning of the word. As with lexical-semantic processes, something of the word’s meaning can be inferred from the context in which it is encountered, and stored for future use.

In skilled readers, phonological processes operate automatically and fluently, without the conscious awareness of the reader.

5 See, for example, Vousden et al., 2010.10

Evaluation Pack

How does the test assess lexical-semantic processes?

The test contains sets of matched regular words and exception words. Pupils whose reading relies on the use of lexical-semantic processes will read regular and exception words to a broadly equivalent level, because both can be accurately pronounced by lexical-semantic processing. Pupils who also have well-developed phonological processes will tend to show an advantage for regular over exception words. This is because regular words can be pronounced accurately by both sets of processes, and so do not need to be already known and stored by the reader.

As explained above, Exception Word Reading is the purest measure of lexical-semantic processes. Therefore, in the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes, stanine scores6 for Exception Word Reading are used as the measure of lexical-semantic processes.

How does the test assess phonological processes?

The test also contains a set of non-words: letter sequences that could be words in the language, but that do not link to any meaning. The non-words in this test have been made by recombining letter sequences from the words in the regular word set: thus, all their component letter sequences are as familiar or unfamiliar to the pupil as the letter sequences in the regular words. Pupils whose reading relies predominantly on the use of phonological processes will read regular words and non-words to a broadly equivalent level, because both can be pronounced accurately by phonological processing. Their reading of exception words, which can only be pronounced accurately by lexical-semantic processes, will be relatively poorer.

As explained above, Non-word Reading is the purest measure of phonological processes. Therefore, in the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes, stanine scores for Non-word Reading are used as the measure of phonological processes.

Why should I use the test?

The Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes is the only standardised test with British English norms currently available that allows you to uncover the nature of the difficulties an individual pupil is experiencing in developing fluent automatic word reading processes. The pupil profile provided by administering this test can usefully inform your ability to provide teaching that is appropriate to the needs of the individual pupil, and that will help the pupil to overcome his or her difficulties.

6 See page 22 of the Teacher’s Guide for a definition of stanine scores. 11


When should I use the test?

You can use the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes to assess the word reading skills of all the pupils in your class, or you might prefer to use it selectively with pupils whose reading development is causing you concern.

The Exception Word Reading/Non-word Reading comparisons reveal three different kinds of profile of reading difficulties:

• a Lexical-Semantic profile, indicating relative difficulty in developing lexical-semantic processes

• a Phonological profile, indicating a relative difficulty in developing phonological processes

• a Mixed profile, indicating difficulty in developing both sets of processes.

Procedures for obtaining and interpreting these profiles are described in Chapter 4. Suggestions for what to do once you have obtained and interpreted a profile for an individual pupil are given in Chapter 6.

It is important to remember that the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes is focused on the word reading dimension of the Simple View of Reading. It cannot (and is not intended to) identify pupils who are experiencing difficulties with reading comprehension, except in so far as those difficulties may be caused by poor or inefficient word reading skills. Pupils with age appropriate word reading skills who struggle to understand written texts appropriate to their age and interests should be given a prose reading test such as the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC, Snowling et al., 2009).

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Evaluation Pack

13

Examples using words supplied in the

Evaluation PackExample 1

Exception Regular Non-word

do √ frog √ froll √

bear √ hill √ mong √

what √ monster x merfar x

people √ farmer √ hister x

wolf x kitchen √ nostchen x

eye √ nostril x hunril x

country x hungry √ pringry x

wealth x princess x kitcess x

rheumatism x bungalow x bungentine x

beautiful x turpentine x turpalow x

Exception word = 5 correctRegular word = 5 correctNon-word = 2 correct

From these raw scores it looks as though this child reads exception words and regular words equally well, and that he/she reads words better than non-words. However, raw scores are misleading and you cannot draw any conclusions from them. You need to convert raw scores to stanine scores using the normative data tables.Using stanine scores, the test is designed to reveal three patterns (‘profiles’) of word reading. This can be done by simply comparing the child’s stanine score for exception words with their stanine score for non-words.

Let’s imagine that the child in the example above achieved a stanine score of 3 for exception word reading, and 1 for non-word reading.

As you can see, these stanine scores give the child a phonological profile. The child relies mostly in reading on lexical-semantic processes, which can read all words, regular as well as exception, as long as they are already familiar to the child. Unfamiliar words cannot be decoded using phonological recoding processes. Intervention for this child should concentrate on developing his/her phonological recoding processes.


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Example 2



bear x hill √ mong √

what √ monster √ merfar √

people √ farmer √ hister √

wolf x kitchen √ nostchen √

eye x nostril √ hunril √

country x hungry x pringry x

wealth x princess √ kitcess x




From these raw scores it looks as though this child reads regular words and non-words equally well, but finds exception words difficult.However, raw scores are misleading and you cannot draw any conclusions from them.You need to convert raw scores to stanine scores using the normative data tables. Using stanine scores, the test is designed to reveal three patterns (‘profiles’) of word reading. This can be done by simply comparing the child’s stanine score for exception words with their stanine score for non-words.


As you can see, these stanine scores give the child a lexical-semantic profile. He/she relies mostly in reading on phonological recoding processes, which can read nonwords and regular words, whether or not the latter are already familiar to the child. However, he/she has difficulty with exception words, as these can only be read accurately by lexical-semantic processes. Intervention for this child should concentrate on developing his/her lexical-semantic processes.

Evaluation Pack

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Example 3



bear x hill √ mong √

what √ monster x merfar x

people √ farmer x hister x

wolf x kitchen x nostchen x

eye x nostril x hunril x

country x hungry x pringry x

wealth x princess x kitcess x




From these raw scores it looks as though this child has equal difficulty reading all three types of word.However, raw scores are misleading and you cannot draw any conclusions from them.You need to convert raw scores to stanine scores using the normative data tables.

Using stanine scores, the test is designed to reveal three patterns (‘profiles’) of word reading. This can be done by simply comparing the child’s stanine score for exception words with their stanine score for non-words.


As you can see, these stanine scores give the child a mixed profile. He/she has not developed either set of word reading processes to an age-appropriate level, and has no relative strength or weakness in one or other set. Intervention for this child should concentrate on developing both phonological recoding and lexical-semantic processes.


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Processes. The latter is designedto benchmark and test pupils’developing skills in word readingand can be used to track progressas part of a school’s assessmentregime. If persistent problems aredetected then the specialistteacher/SENCO could administerPhAB, a well-established test thatlooks at six different areas ofphonological processing.

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DIAGNOSTIC TEST OF WORD READING PROCESSES - … · The Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes is a test of ... individual stanine score for each of its three component parts