Standardised dyslexia tests

A project entitled ‘Standardised Tests for Dyslexia’ was recently commissioned by the University’s Aċċess-Disability Support Committee (ADSC) and the Directorate of Quality and Standards in Education (DQSE) of the Ministry of Education.

The main objective of the project is the design of suitable standardised tests in English and Maltese for the Maltese population of students aged between six and 16.

For the ADSC, the tests are needed to establish realistic levels of literacy competence in Maltese and English, with the aim of identifying threshold levels beneath which access arrangements would need to be provided in exams.

For the DQSE, these measures are needed to provide better methods than currently available for identifying those students having difficulties in developing adequate literacy skills as early as Year 2 (ages six to seven).

These measures should serve as a useful tool for qualified literacy teachers and educational psychologists to identify children who are struggling to develop literacy skills in a bilingual context.

Following preliminary discussions and given the 18-month timeframe for completing the project, it was decided to develop and standardise spelling tests and reading comprehension tests in Maltese and English that would be suitable for testing students attending Year 2 primary up to Form 5 secondary.

Frank Ventura is project co-ordinator, Christine Firman is spelling test project leader, Victor Martinelli is reading test project leader and Liberato Camilleri is the statistician.