Dyslexia Assessment Research Project

Last week, the Special Needs Unit of the University launched the Dyslexia Assessment Research Project (DARP).

The specific objectives of the project were: 1. to establish what an assessment procedure for dyslexia should be like; 2. to develop standardised tests for dyslexia for different age groups of the Maltese population; and 3. to develop a system that will allow the certification of difficulties in respect of Maltese and English when assessing bilingual persons in different age groups.

This project was divided into a number of stages. The first stage was launched through a seminar that aimed to bring all interested professionals, parents and other interested parties together to establish how best to engage themselves.

The seminar sought to clarify the methodological, technical and financial issues that are involved in the creation and validation of tests.

The second stage would consist of the creation of a set of instruments that would need to be standardised and validated for the Maltese population. On the basis of the findings of the second stage, a valid set of tests will be made available for assessment of literacy skills in Maltese learners.

This will be the third stage, as a result of which Malta will start to benefit from an assessment procedure for dyslexia that takes into consideration all the relative factors that come into play in the development of literacy in Maltese society.

The objectives are available at: http://www.um. edu.mt/pressreleases/2006/darp_objectives_programme.pdf.