Abstract
In this longitudinal study, the word-level reading trajectories of 118 children were tracked alongside teachers’ reported concerns and types of support provided through Grades 1, 2 and 3. Results show a significant decline in composite scores relative to age norms over time, with children achieving significantly lower in phonemic decoding than word recognition at the subtest level. Five group trajectories were identified: children who achieved average or above average scores across all 3 years (n = 64), children who consistently bordered on average (n = 11), children who achieved below average in Grade 1 but who then achieved average or above in Grade 2 or Grade 3 (n = 7), children who achieved average or above in Grade 1 but then declined to below average in Grade 2 or Grade 3 (n = 10), and children who achieved below average across all 3 years (n = 26). Appropriately, teachers’ concerns were highest for students in the groups that improved, declined or remained persistently below average. However, analysis of the focus of teachers’ concerns and the supports they said were provided to the children in these three groups suggests that teachers are not always accurate in their interpretation of children’s presenting characteristics, resulting in the misalignment of support provision.
Highlights
Learning to read is a fundamental achievement, ideally mastered by children within their first 3 years of formal schooling
Despite the prioritisation of literacy in school education, unacceptably high numbers of children do not achieve the level of reading proficiency required to function in a knowledge-based economy, placing them at increased risk of long-term unemployment and socioeconomic disadvantage. This is evident from student performance in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA)
It is critical to pinpoint where and how this might be happening in the early years of formal schooling, as research shows that the provision of timely, evidence-based interventions as part of a multi-tiered system of support can avert negative trajectories (Galuschka, Ise, Krick, & Schulte-Körne, 2014; Swanson et al, 2017; Torgesen, 2004)
Summary
Learning to read is a fundamental achievement, ideally mastered by children within their first 3 years of formal schooling. Despite the prioritisation of literacy in school education, unacceptably high numbers of children do not achieve the level of reading proficiency required to function in a knowledge-based economy, placing them at increased risk of long-term unemployment and socioeconomic disadvantage This is evident from student performance in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA). Is supported by a recent national audit of initial teacher education unit outlines which found that only 4% of the 116 literacy units reviewed had a specific focus on early reading instruction, only 6% mentioned all five essential elements (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension), and none mentioned the Simple View of Reading (Buckingham & Meeks, 2019) These knowledge gaps have implications for teachers’ ability to teach all children in their class to read but to accurately identify difficulties across the different components of reading, thereby enabling teachers to source and provide appropriate targeted support. There is, a bidirectional relationship between externalising behaviours and language and reading/ learning difficulties (Fletcher et al, 2018) which, if unrecognised, may mean that a child only ever receives behavioural diagnostic labels and interventions, and never the primary academic support they need
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