MidYIS Reading Test:
Assessment of Phonological &
Phonic Abilities
2 Types, 2 interventions?
Bernardine King
Thanks to:
All pilot and pre-pilot schools.
Andrew Lyth
Summary
1.
2.
3.
4.
Dyslexia – what is it?
Theoretical rationale behind the test
sections.
Results from Pilot.
Applications & Limitations of test –
what can it be used for?
The Task
To produce a screener that is:
 Accurate.
 Short, making holistic statements.
 Suggests definite courses of action.

Purpose of Test
Part of a new reading test for MidYIS intended to assess
various levels of literacy ability:
Phonological & phonic skills. Providing
information useful in deciding who may
need specialist assessment for dyslexia,
etc.
 Vocabulary – picture and sound.
 Comprehension - component skills, e.g.
inference making.

Advantages of the Test
Fits within a lesson.
 Short sub-tests and partly adaptive,
designed to minimize stress.
 Gives an overall estimate of the
likelihood of having a literacy difficulty
such as dyslexia. But does NOT
diagnose it!

Advantages of the Test, cont’d

Suggests the type of deficit, so can inform future strategies.
 Synergies with the main MidYIS test – offers an holistic
picture of the student.
Rose Report, June 2009
What is Dyslexia?
The review’s working definition:
1.
A learning difficulty that primarily affects
the skills involved in accurate
and fluent word reading and spelling.
What is Dyslexia?
2. Characteristic difficulties in:
 phonological awareness
 verbal memory
 verbal processing speed.
What is Dyslexia?
3. Occurs across the range of intellectual
abilities.
4. A continuum, not a distinct category.
5. No clear cut-off points.
Ehri’s phases of Reading
Development
Letter-sound links:
Consolidated
Full alphabetic
Partial alphabetic
Pre-alphabetic
All links including
exception spellings
All regular spellings
Some = ‘partial’
None, iconic reading:
eg
m in mcDonalds
Partial Alphabetic Phase
•Letter confusions, b/d, p/q/
•Nonword reading problems:
‘pib’
‘dalop’
•Salient letters of words attended
to, eg 1st & last letters
Rationale Behind the Test
Sections
Test phonological and phonic skills.
 Phonology- word sounds.
 Phonological processing deficit in
dyslexia.
 Phonic problems – relating graphemes
(letters & letter groups) to the
corresponding sounds (phonemes).

Tests of Phonology Made-up word (nonword) reading,
adaptive test.
 ‘Sounds’ test – identifying sounds
in words.
 Phonological Short Term Memoryforward & backward digit span.
Design of Sub Tests
‘Nonword reading’ and ‘Sounds’ –
adaptive, to:
 match difficulty of items to student
ability;
 Reduce assessment load and time.
Phonics
Nonword reading- relating graphemes
to phonemes.
 ‘Sounds’- sounds to letters, as in
spelling.
 Pseudohomophone test- made-up
words (pseudowords) that sound like
real words, e.g. phocks = fox. Also, test
of phonology.

Pseudohomophone Test

Pseudo = made-up word
 Homophone = sounds like
 Requires many visual and auditory skills:
e.g. reading ‘phocks’
grapheme separation: ‘ph’ ‘o’ ‘ck’ ‘s’
grapheme-phoneme conversion:
‘ph’> /f/ ‘o’> /o/ ‘ck’ > /k/ ‘s’> /s/
Phoneme blending:
/f/ /o/ /k/ /s/
Then..
Pseudohomophone Test cont.
Match sound package of blended
phonemes with items in known sound
vocabulary.
/f/ + /o/ + /k/ + /s/ = ‘fox’
Added difficulty – word search format.
Visual search problems in dyslexia.
Choose 5 out of 16 on each of 5 screens.

Guessing
Nonword reading: 1 in 4 chance. Forced
choice multiple choice.
 ‘Sounds’: 1 in 4 chance. Forced choice
multiple choice.
 Word Search (pseudohomophones): 5
in 16 chance. Can move on without
answering.

Design of Sub Tests
‘Lyrebird’ Test – an adaptation of a
spoken digit span test for computer.
 Lack of visual distraction- black screen
with fixation spot.
 Response entered on screen.
 Max number of digits = 8, to reduce
assessment load and time.

Memory
Problems with phonological STM
common in dyslexia. Order problemse.g. telephone numbers.
 Backward digit span –measure of
working memory.
 Short backward digit span often found in
dyslexia.

The Pilot
Pre-pilot: 7 schools.
Schools who returned both test files and
validation data (n=808):
22 were Independent (all England)
2 were International (1 Vietnam, 1 Qatar)
6 were State schools (3 England, 3 Northern
Ireland).
Schools who only returned test files:
14 Independent (all England)
8 State (7 England, 1 Wales)
344
Results
Genetic program, ‘Eureqa’ (Schmidt &
Lipson, e2009).
 Suggested 2 different cognitive profiles.
 NVR-strong group, n= 66, distinct from
NVR-strong typicals by relationship
between nonword reading and Word
Search.
 NVR-weak group, with phonologicsl
profile indistinct from NVR-weak
typicals.

Phonic Profiles
Phonics = relationship between
graphemes (letters/letter groups) and
phonemes (the sounds associated with
those graphemes).
Asynchrony hypothesis ( e.g. Breznitz,
2002; King, 2009; King, Wood &
Faulkner, 2008). Lack of auditory-visual
integration in dyslexia.
Vector reflecting relationship between
phonological and visual abilities /
speed of processing.
Specific strategies suggested
by Type from Test
Vocabulary stronger than NVR type:
 Visuo-spatial memory or cognitive
manipulation problem?
 Practising mental rotations and
reflections may help both the NVR and
reading skills?
 Memory visualisations?

Strategies for NVR-Strong
Dyslexics
Poor reverse digit span cf NVR-type
typical students implies that training in
improving working memory may help.
 BUT their memory skills are
commensurate with typical readers of
the strong vocabulary type!
 Phonology? Subject choices- eg
languages.

What do Children with Dyslexia
think makes good teaching?
IDP: 118 (52 primary, 66 secondary) children
surveyed.
 ‘Show don’t just tell’.
 Be enthusiastic.
 Help if I get stuck.
 Be brief, don’t ramble.
 Write things clearly.
 Encourage and reward attempts.
2. What do Children with
Dyslexia think makes good
teaching?
Don’t speak too fast.
 Don’t rush me.
 Have instructions on the board as a
reminder.
 Don’t embarrass me in front of the class.
 Tell me where to begin.
 Give me time to think before I begin a task.

Uses & Limitations of the Test
Audit of phonological abilities of a
cohort.
 Shows strengths & weaknesses.
 Does not diagnose dyslexia.
 Cannot identify ‘recovered’ dyslexic
readers.
 Shows marked phonological / phonic
difficulties.
