A Common Sense Approach to Demystify Universal Reading Screening with Multilingual Students
Our guest author is Lillian Durán, a professor in the Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of Oregon. She develops language and literacy screening measures in English and Spanish and consults nationally regarding best practices in assessment with multilingual learners.
Children learn the languages they are exposed to across their daily lives, but children acquire the ability to read in a language through formal instruction. Awareness of this fundamental difference between language and literacy skill development is at the core of making common sense decisions regarding the screening of multilingual students for reading problems.
Universal Screening for reading development issues including dyslexia during the early elementary school years is now mandated or recommended in 49 states in the U.S. which naturally necessitates that all children are tested with the assumption that screening will accurately identify those children who will benefit from more targeted instructional support to reduce the likelihood that they will fall further behind in their reading development. The goal is to deliver effective and evidence-based reading intervention early that is likely to prevent reading failure before it becomes entrenched.
The process and purpose seems clear for many children, however in practice it is important to consider the nearly 12 million children who speak a language other than English at home. For these children careful consideration of English language proficiency and the language of reading instruction need to be taken into consideration. English proficiency will influence a child’s ability to understand task directions, the vocabulary used in the test, and the background knowledge necessary to respond appropriately to many test items, especially when measuring vocabulary development. The language of reading instruction will directly impact the development of children’s code-based literacy skills.