Toetsen Voor het Onderkennen Van Leerproblemen Bij Beginnende Lezers

A report is given of the construction and validation of diagnostic tests for the evaluation of pupils in the first stages of reading instruction. With these tests it will be possible to apply psychological principles of learning to read to the design of interventions that will facilitate the acquisition of desirable levels of reading performance. The tests indicate, which pupils have difficulties in learning to read. They also give an indication of the nature of these problems and of the way these problems can be solved. For each test it was analyzed with the help of information processing task analysis which subskills play a role in reading and writing words and short texts. Also an analysis was made of the errors in the various tests. Then for each test it was investigated what the connection was between the occurrence of certain types of errors in the test and the mastery (or absence of mastery) of subskills that underly the test performance. It turned out that in a number of cases the occurrence of certain types of errors could be related to an insufficient command of the specific subskills which play an important role in the initial stages of learning to read and to write. Thus the tests can be seen as diagnostic evaluation instruments. By analysing the pupil's errors in the tests the teacher will be informed about the degree to which his pupils have mastered the underlying sub-skills. In this way the teacher can himself improve the quality of instruction especially for those pupils who are in danger of falling behind in the teaching process. The construction and validation process is illustrated by means of two of the tests.