Is a Phone-Based Language and Literacy Assessment a Reliable and Valid Measure of Children’s Reading Skills in Low-Resource Settings?

Technology-based remote research methods are increasingly widespread, including learning assessments in child development and education research. However, little is known about whether technology-based remote assessments remain as valid and reliable as in-person assessments. We developed a low-cost phone-based language and literacy assessment for primary-school children in low-resource communities in rural Côte d’Ivoire using voice calls and SMS. We compared the reliability and validity of this phone-based assessment to an established in-person assessment.679 5th grade children completed language (phonological awareness, vocabulary, language comprehension) and literacy (letter, word, pseudoword, passage reading and comprehension) tasks in-person and by phone. Reliability (internal consistency) and predictive validity was high across in-person and phone-based tasks. In-person and phone-based assessments were moderately to strongly correlated. Phonological awareness and vocabulary skills measured in-person and by phone significantly predicted in-person and phone-based letter, word and pseudoword reading. Oral language and decoding skills measured in-person and by phone also significantly predicted in-person and phone-based passage reading and comprehension scores.Our phone-based assessment was a reliable and valid measure of language and reading and feasible for low-resource settings. Low-cost technologies offer significant potential to measure children’s learning remotely, contributing to greater inclusion of remote and low-resource populations in education research.

Learning to Read in a Local Language in Uganda: Creating Learner Profiles to Track Progress and Guide Instruction Using Early Grade Reading Assessment Results

The Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) is used to evaluate studies and monitor projects that address reading skills in low- and middle-income countries. Results are often described solely in terms of a passage-reading subtask, thereby overlooking progress in related skills. Using archival data of cohort samples from Uganda at two time points in three languages (Ganda, Lango, and Runyankore-Rukiga), we explored a methodology that uses passage-reading results to create five learner profiles: Nonreader, Beginner, Instructional, Fluent, and Next-Level Ready. We compared learner profiles with results on other subtasks to identify the skills students would need to develop to progress from one profile to another. We then used regression models to determine whether students’ learner profiles were related to their results on the various subtasks. We found membership in four categories. We also found a shift in the distribution of learner profiles from Grade 1 to Grade 4, which is useful for establishing program effectiveness. The distribution of profiles within grades expanded as students progressed through the early elementary grades. We recommend that those who are discussing EGRA results describe students by profiles and by the numbers that shift from one profile to another over time. Doing so would help describe abilities and instructional needs and would show changes in a meaningful way.

A Mandarin Chinese Reading Passage for Eliciting Significant Vocal Range Variations

Purpose There is a lack of standardized Mandarin reading text material that could potentially elicit significant variations in fundamental frequency (F0) and in vocal intensity for clinical voice evaluation. In this study, a phonetically balanced “Three Bears Passage” was developed based on the classical “Goldilocks” story for this purpose. The hypothesis was that the vocal range (F0 range and Intensity range) elicited while reading aloud the passage could be similar to that of the voice range profile (VRP) obtained with sustained vowel production and significantly different from that while reading an existing standard Mandarin passage. Method One hundred twenty young adults (60 men and 60 women, aged 25.22 ± 3.74 years) without vocal pathologies and vocal training participated in the study. Vocal range data, including F0-related measures and intensity-related measures, were obtained with Praat in order to construct VRPs for the sustained /a/ and to construct speech range profiles for passage reading. Results F0 range and intensity range for the new passage were significantly larger than those for the existing Mandarin passage for both male and female participants. In particular, the F0 range for the passage was not significantly different from that of the VRP for male participants. Conclusions These findings suggested that the new passage could allow individuals without vocal training to demonstrate a large vocal range in both F0 and vocal intensity, in a passage reading setting in a relatively short time. Further studies should be pursued with the passage to investigate the vocal range and vocal potential of individuals with voice disorders.

The Multivariate Genome-wide Architecture of Interrelated Literacy, Language and Working Memory Skills Reveals Distinct Etiologies

There is genetic overlap between many measures of literacy, language and phonological working memory (PWM) though our knowledge of multivariate genetic architectures is incomplete. Here, we directly modeled genetic trait interrelationships in unrelated UK youth (8-13 years, N=6,453), as captured by genome-wide relationship matrices, using novel structural equation modeling techniques. We identified, besides shared genetic factors across different domains (explaining 91-97% genetic variance in literacy-related measures such as passage reading fluency, spelling, phonemic awareness, 44% in oral language and 53% in PWM), evidence for distinct cognitive abilities; trait-specific genetic influences ranged between 47% for PWM to 56% for oral language. Among reading fluency measures (non-word, word and passage reading), single-word reading was genetically most diverse. Multivariate genetic and residual covariance patterns showed concordant effect directionality, except for near-zero residual correlations between oral language and literacy-related abilities. These findings suggest differences in etiological mechanisms and trait modifiability even among genetically highly correlated skills.