Can anyone explain reading ages to me

rio

My Lo has just had a reading test done and the results have been sent to us, this was done by his school as they have some issues over his reading ability, and believe that he may have hyperlexia (the ability to read words, but not always comprehend what they mean individually or in a sentence). I know this sounds a bit odd, but should his reading age normally correspond to his actual age, or is it expected to be higher? My LO has been given a reading age two years seven months more than his actual age on the Schonell test.

Nenen

If your son's reading was what one would expect for his age it would indeed be the same as his chronological (actual) age. There is an acceptable standard deviation (usually 3 months above or below CA) that also means he is reading appropriately for his age. The fact that his reading age is 2 years seven months above his chronological age means he is reading at a level one would expect from a child about 2y 7m older than him.

However, there are two important points to consider:

1) Reading ages and tests are not an exact science! If you gave the same child 5 different reading tests on the same day you would probably get 5 different reading ages! Some reading tests are known to produce higher scores than others. Also, if you gave a child the same reading test on different days/times they would probably score differently (even if one could remove the practice effect). Young children are notorius for erratic performance depending upon mood, concentration, time of day etc.

2) The kind of test used is very important. The Schonell single word test (if that is what it was) is purely a test of a child's ability to read a word in isolation. Children are just given lists of words to read that gradually get more difficult (not in sentences) and each one is marked according to whether they pronounce the word correctly or not. It does not test the child's ability to understand what the word means or to be able to use it in context. There are several reading tests that do likewise. There are other tests that do test understanding, often the child is given a sentence with a missing word and given three or more options of words to choose to put into the gap so that the sentence makes sense. These are often called 'cloze' procedures.

I would guess that the school is using the Schonell test to show that your ds is hyperlexic, i.e. his scores on single word test is way above what one would expect for his age but on a cloze procedure (where comprehension is important) his score would be much lower (possibly even below what one would expect for his age).

Did they give you any other reading test results?
Feel free to ask more questions if what I've written doesn't make sense!:D

Mrs_pbradley936

I agree with everything said by Nenen. There are several reasons why your child may be advanced with reading compared to others of the same age. Perhaps you read a lot in your house or there may be a slightly older sibling and the younger one is picking up bits and pieces unconsciously.

Take the sound for the letter f as “fuh” which it is in many cases. However it can also be made by ‘ph’ or ‘ough’ such as in phone or cough. I would be surprised if a five year old knew that but I would expect an 8 year old to. If an 8 year old did not know it then they would have a reading age of lower than expected.

Another example would be if the child said guy-ant when they saw the word ‘giant’.
That needs a special type of correction because it is not wrong to pronounce the g in that way, it is just not how it is said in this case. So in the example with the “fuh” sound it can be seen differently and in the example with the giant the ‘g’ can be said differently (as a j in this instance).

rio

Thanks for your help. As far as I know they only used the Schonell Test with him, but he has been talking a lot about sentences and missing words and choosing words so perhaps they have done one like that as well. We do read a lot in our house, and LO has always been encouraged to pick up books and have a go at reading them whenever he feels like it.

patchwork_cat

Hi
Is the Suffolk a 'cloze' test? Do you expect that the missing word tests are more accurate then?

Mrs_pbradley936

If look on this page:

http://www.nfer-nelson.co.uk/education/default.asp?css=1

You will find a link to “Making sense of reading ages”

Mrs_pbradley936

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Hi
Is the Suffolk a 'cloze' test? Do you expect that the missing word tests are more accurate then?

Yes, I would describe as such. Missing word tests are helpful with seeing if children understand what they are reading. If a child can speak fluently by age 3 then it is possible to teach them the letter sounds and you can show them pictures of a cat or a mop or a pot etc to help them build simple words. However they will not understand context at this age so you could not do a missing word test on them and get a proper result. That is why they seldom have a reading age score of less than about age 6.

Phonics or the letter sounds are very important and easy to teach. They form the basis of reading but children need a degree of maturity to be able to put words into context. Ideally every child would be on a phonics programme (there are lots of them) started by age 5 and in addition read to every day. Not as a lesson but as story time.

Nenen

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Hi
Is the Suffolk a 'cloze' test? Do you expect that the missing word tests are more accurate then?

Yes Suffolk is a type of cloze test; you can have a look at it here (click on the view digital demo to see an example of how a cloze test works):
http://www.nfer-nelson.co.uk/education/resources/suffolk_reading_scale/demo.asp?css=1

It is not necessarily that one test is more accurate than another, they just test different things!

A single word test is more a test of phonic skills and/or visual memory/recall. Some children have amazingly good phonic skills or visual memories for individual words (an extreme example is someone with hyperlexia) but that does not necessarily mean they understand what it is they are reading. It might be compared to giving someone fluent in reading English a sentence like this to read:

'Munling twells ler dax nuffs gligged cromsly groot dar mewleck.'

I'm sure you could read that sentence accurately but it would make absolutely no sense to you! If you were given a single word test consisting of all the words in that sentence you would score very highly. From this, a teacher could ascertain that your phonic skills were very good.

Likewise, phonically irregular words (of which English has many) can be learned by someone with a good visual memory without any understanding of what the word means. Single word tests also test these (choir is one that comes to mind in the later stages of the Schonell test). It is perfectly possible for a child to be able to read the word 'choir' and yet have no understanding of what a choir actually is. Nonetheless, it is still useful to know how good someone's visual memory is, as this information can be used to help develop appropriate strategies in learning to read.

However, going back to the nonsense sentence I used previously, if you were given a cloze procedure whereby one of the words in that sentence was missing and you were given a choice of alternatives to put in you would not be able to do it. The teacher would then know that you didn't understand what you had read. This is a different skill entirely and different teaching strategies are employed to develop this understanding, first of explicit meaning and then of implied meaning.

Children don't all develop their skills in exactly the same order but ideally phonic skills and understanding of what you are able to read should be roughly in tandem. Whilst many parents get terribly excited about young children developing an ability to 'bark at print' (i.e. read words through rote learning) schools are usually more concerned in the long term about children's ability to understand what they are reading.

When teachers hear children read they are usually checking for the presence of all decoding skills and most primary teachers are able to do this without the use of artificial tests. Personally, I like to do tests every six months or so to ensure I am correct in my own assessments and in order to ensure the appropriate progress is being maintained. Different schools have different policies on how often children should be tested and the form it should take. However, if a problem is suspected then it is sometimes useful to use both kinds of tests to check the child is actually using all strategies (pictures if present, phonic skills, visual memory, knowledge of grammar and understanding of context) together in ther reading especially when decoding unknown words.
Hope this makes sense... I'm tired tonight!:D

Btw wikipedia has a good article on hyperlexia if you are interested.:beer:

Nenen

whoops... while I was writing my epic I cross-posted with MrsPB! Sorry:o