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Identification of reading disabilities in Spanish : an English-Spanish comparison

University of British Columbia

The current study examined the identification of reading disabilities in Spanish, a regular language as compared to English, an irregular language. In study one, a sample of 66 Spanish-speaking children was compared with two English samples on a language equivalent measure of word and nonword decoding. Also, a discrepancy score between those two measures was obtained to examine differences in the mastery of orthographic and decoding skills. The two English samples were exposed to two different methods of reading instruction: Phonics (n=63) and Whole Language (n=44). The results showed a language impact on the achievement for word identification (Wl), no differences on word attack (WA), and a greater discrepancy between these two measures for Spanish. Spanish children obtained high scores on Wl, even the reading disabled group, as classified by a nonword measure. The use of Wl as the measure for identifying a reading disability in Spanish is questioned. Method of instruction showed an impact on the development of decoding skills in English. In study two, the Spanish reading profile was further examined by a 3 groups match: (1) A group of 7 reading-disabled children (RD), (2) A comparison group of 15 normal readers matched in chronological age with the reading disabled (CA), and (3) A reading level matched group of 12 younger normal readers at the same reading level as the reading disabled (RL). Measures of decoding, fluency, reading comprehension, spelling, phonological processing, language and memory tasks, were administered. The RD group performed more poorly than the RL group on nonword reading and one minute nonword reading. However, RD children obtained average scores on word identification. The CA children were superior in all the tasks except for the language and memory tasks on which both RD and CA children performed at the same level. Overall, both studies showed that a more sensitive measure, such as nonword reading or timed nonword reading is necessary to identify a reading disability in a regular language such as Spanish.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-08-06

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/11821

Special Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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