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(Rockville, MD - May 20, 2009) When it comes to reading testing, a clinical forum in the April 2009 Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, a journal of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), argues for the differentiated assessment of word recognition, reading comprehension, and specific subject knowledge.
In "The Case for the Narrow View of Reading," clinical forum first author Alan G. Kamhi and five respondents address the advantages and disadvantages of embracing a definition of reading that is restricted to word recognition. Kamhi asserts that the traditional broader view of reading combines two very different components—word recognition and comprehension—into a single reading score that can obscure differences in abilities in those areas.
"Assessing reading skills by combining word recognition and comprehension is much like only knowing your cholesterol number," according to Kamhi. "You don't really know the breakdown from the total score. Your cholesterol score may be 'normal' even though you have a high LDL number—which is the bad cholesterol. There may still be reason for concern. Likewise, without knowing how a child scores separately for word recognition and comprehension, a teacher or parent won't know where a child's deficits lie and what areas they need to work on."
According to forum participants, differentiating among word recognition, reading comprehension, and subject-specific knowledge will allow speech-language pathologists and other educators to observe and measure the impact of instruction designed to improve each area. This can lead to an appreciation of the language, cognitive, and motivational factors that impact subject specific knowledge and general comprehension abilities. The contributors to this clinical forum have provided examples of the type of instruction needed to improve student performance in these areas.
The clinical forum can be found at http://lshss.asha.org/current.dtl.
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About the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 135,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems including swallowing disorders.
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