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Traditionally, the New Zealand Ministry of Education opposed the recognition of dyslexia. However, since 2007, the Ministry of Education's position has started to change, evidenced by the development of a working definition. In 2021 the Ministry of Education released Three Steps in Screening for Dyslexia (TSSD), an assessment protocol designed to support teachers to screen for dyslexia. The current research evaluated the TSSD with a sample of 209 children in Years 4 to 6 (8-10 years-of-age) from New Zealand. The research investigated whether children could be accurately classified using tests from the TSSD, whether the three-step protocol described in the TSSD was a valid assessment approach, and what effect operationalising the term average at different cut-off points had on dyslexia screening. Children were classified using two cluster analyses. The first analysis was based on tests from the Woodcock Johnson IV and the second analysis was based on tests from the TSSD. Subsequent analyses investigated specific aspects of the TSSD protocol, including its sequential design and the placement of cut-off points. Results revealed a number of limitations to the TSSD approach. The authors discuss three changes that could be made to improve the validity and reliability of the TSSD, including a broader assessment of the decoding and language comprehension constructs; directing teachers to assess both decoding and language comprehension, irrespective of a child's language comprehension ability; and placing a greater emphasis on discrepancy bands over cut-off points.

A child's early literacy and language skills are the most reliable predictor of future academic achievement. Despite vast amounts of research supporting this link, many children start formal schooling with low early literacy skills. Without intervention or support, these children will likely continue to fall behind their peers. This exploratory study investigated the effectiveness of a parent-led phonological awareness programme (n = 3), implemented at home with their 4-year-old children (n = 4) in Christchurch, New Zealand. This study used an exploratory case study mixed methods design. The programme focused on improving children's phonological awareness skills by providing parents with readily available activities which taught a range of phonological skills. Parents were supported throughout implementation by the researcher with coaching and modelling. Overall, the study found parents to be effective at implementing the phonological awareness programme and facilitating the development of their children's emergent literacy skills. Children demonstrated increased phoneme identification, blending and segmenting skills and additional skills not explicitly taught, such as phoneme manipulation. Participation in the programme also positively affected children's interest in literacy activities, such as reading and writing. Parent reports identified positive effects on children's articulation, speech, engagement and overall confidence. Parents were positively affected by their participation in the programme, with reports of increased confidence in their English proficiencies and literacy skill development. Keywords Early literacy * Phonological awareness * Emergent literacy skills * Parent-implemented, 1 Introduction The acquisition of early literacy and language skills is one of the most crucial developments in childhood. These skills underpin later literacy knowledge and children's ongoing ability to [...]

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the lack of government funding and support for interventions beyond Reading Recovery means that assessment and support for students demonstrating literacy difficulties are primarily left to schools themselves. To meet the needs of students, including those demonstrating difficulties with literacy learning, schools and teachers must have assessments and interventions that can identify and meet the needs of those students. Currently, there is a lack of research on the nature of assessments and interventions used by schools and their confidence in using these to meet the needs of students, including those with literacy learning difficulties. In the current study, we surveyed schools about the types of assessments used to identify literacy difficulties and the interventions provided to students. Results indicated a wide range of assessments and interventions used in schools, but the identified interventions often failed to meet the criteria for intervention (teacher-led, based on specific needs), and assessments were often unlikely to provide information about specific literacy difficulties. Overall, the variability of interventions and assessments indicated a lack of consistency in the identification of students with literacy learning difficulties and, in the interventions, provided to support these students.

Background: This study explored the impact of different cut‐off points used to identify children with reading difficulties on the distribution of these children across the three poor reader groups predicted by the simple view of reading (dyslexia, specific comprehension difficulty and mixed difficulty). Additionally, the study investigated whether the cognitive profiles of these poor reader groups remained consistent across varying levels of reading impairment. Methods: This study included 209 primary school children from New Zealand, in Years 4–6 and aged 8–10 years, who experienced reading comprehension difficulties. Using a two‐step cluster analysis, participants were assigned to one of three poor reader groups: dyslexia, specific comprehension difficulty (SCD) and mixed difficulty. We examined the distribution of children across these groups at eight levels of reading comprehension difficulty and conducted strengths and weaknesses profiles at four levels of reading ability across 14 tests that assessed a range of reading‐related skills. Additionally, we compared the performance of children in these groups who performed above and below the 10th percentile on a reading comprehension assessment across these tests. Results: The results showed that the proportion of children assigned to each group varied across the reading levels, with children at the lower end of the reading comprehension continuum more likely to exhibit the mixed difficulty profile than the SCD and dyslexia profiles. Overall, the research found that dyslexia, SCD and mixed difficulty profiles could be identified at all levels of reading comprehension difficulty, though weaknesses in their reading‐related skills increased as reading comprehension difficulties also increased. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that struggling readers demonstrate distinct cognitive profiles across all levels of reading ability. These results have important implications for identifying and supporting struggling readers, as well as enhancing our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of reading difficulties. The possible relationship between the results obtained in this study and tiered models of reading support is discussed. Highlights: What is already known about this topicChildren with reading comprehension difficulties can be classified into three groups based on their decoding and language comprehension proficiency: dyslexia, specific comprehension difficulty (SCD) and mixed difficulty.Several factors influence the proportion of children assigned to these three groups. What this paper addsThe dyslexia, SCD and mixed difficulty profiles are identifiable at all levels of reading comprehension difficulty.Children with the most pronounced reading comprehension difficulties are likely to exhibit decoding and language comprehension difficulties. Implications for theory, policy or practiceThe findings suggest that children with the most pronounced reading comprehension difficulties may require the most intensive support focusing on decoding and language comprehension skills.Children with less pronounced reading comprehension difficulties may require programmes that emphasise either decoding or language comprehension to a greater extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details findings from an exploratory case study that examined the efficacy of a phonological awareness and vocabulary programme with children educated in a bilingual immersion context of English and te reo Māori (Māori language) in Aotearoa New Zealand. The current paper discusses changes in the development of early literacy skills in English and te reo Māori in two groups of children aged from 5 years 0 months to 7 years 5 months. Twenty-six children from two bilingual classrooms in a rural school participated in a programme implemented by teachers over 15 weeks. The programme included explicit instruction in phonological awareness and vocabulary. One classroom was from Level 1 te reo Māori immersion, and one was from Level 3 te reo Māori/English. Results were analysed at cohort and class levels. Analyses indicated that both groups of children significantly improved in phonological awareness skills, non-word reading, and expressive vocabulary. Correlational analyses indicated that growth in te reo Māori skills was positively associated with growth in English skills. These findings suggest that further investigation into how the explicit teaching of te reo Māori can benefit the development of phonological awareness and print-related skills in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the response to class-wide phonological awareness and oral language teaching for 40 children who entered school with speech and language difficulties. A stepped wedge research design was adopted to compare the immediate impact of the 10-week teacher-led instruction. The progress of the children with speech and language difficulties was monitored over the first school year and compared with 110 children with language difficulties alone and 95 children with typical development. Children with speech and language needs showed a strong intervention response in phoneme awareness and vocabulary learning but needed more support to transfer skills to word decoding and spelling. Implementing the approach earlier in the school year resulted in stronger literacy performance at the year-end for all three groups. The importance of positive speech-language pathologist and teacher collaborations to support a systematic approach to evidence-based foundational literacy teaching is discussed.

This study investigated the feasibility of a teacher implemented intervention to accelerate phonological awareness, letter, and vocabulary knowledge in 141 children (mean age 5 years, 4 months) who entered school with lower levels of oral language ability. The children attended schools in low socioeconomic communities where additional stress was still evident 6 years after the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011. The teachers implemented the intervention at the class or large group level for 20 h (four 30-min sessions per week for 10 weeks). A stepped wedge research design was used to evaluate intervention effects. Children with lower oral language ability made significantly more progress in both their phonological awareness and targeted vocabulary knowledge when the teachers implemented the intervention compared to progress made when teachers implemented their usual literacy curriculum. Importantly, the intervention accelerated children's ability to use improved phonological awareness skills when decoding novel words (treatment effect size d = 0.88). Boys responded to the intervention as well as girls and the skills of children who identified as Maori or Pacific Islands (45.5% of the cohort) improved in similar ways to children who identified as New Zealand European. The findings have important implications for designing successful teacher-implemented interventions, within a multi-tier approach, to support children who enter school with known challenges for their literacy learning.

The article presents the discussion on providing the reader with a general understanding of dyslexia. Topics include informing individual education/action plans providing procedures for supporting individuals with dyslexia; and terms such as schizophrenia and autism having similar issues in terms of exact use, definition, identification and intervention.