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An evaluation of two emergent literacy screening tools for preschool children

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Abstract

Children’s reading success in early elementary school can be predicted from their emergent literacy skills. Consequently, there has been an increased focus on early childhood education as a means of identifying children at risk for later reading difficulty. Because diagnostic measures are impractical for this use, emergent literacy screening tools have been developed. In this study, 176 preschool children ranging in age from 42 to 55 months were administered the Revised Get Ready to Read! (GRTR-R), the Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs), and a diagnostic measure at two time points. Results indicated that GRTR-R either matched or outperformed IGDIs in terms of test–retest reliability and concurrent validity.

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Notes

  1. Similar results were found for individual subtests: IGDIs Picture Naming [F(1,198) = 5.45, p = 0.02], TOPEL Print Knowledge [F(1,198) = 4.54, p = 0.03], and TOPEL Definitional Vocabulary [F(1,198) = 6.39, p = 0.01]. However, neither IGDIs Phonological Awareness [F(1,198) = 1.22, p = 0.27] nor TOPEL Phonological Awareness [F(1,198) = 86, p = 0.36] was different across these two groups.

  2. To test for possible differences between the sample of children not enrolled in academically focused preschools (N = 154) and the sample of children enrolled in academically focused preschools (N = 22), independent-samples t tests were calculated comparing time 1 overall scores. Scores did not differ between the groups [GRTR-R, t(174) = 1.81, p = 0.07; IGDIs composite, t(174) = 0.68, p = 0.50; TOPEL ELI, t(174) = 0.52, p = 0.61].

  3. In addition to using raw screener scores to calculate correlation coefficients, age-standardized screener scores were used to calculate an alternative set of correlation coefficients. Results were similar to those presented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Florida State University, 1107 West Call Street, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4301, USA

    Shauna B. Wilson & Christopher J. Lonigan

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  1. Shauna B. Wilson
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  2. Christopher J. Lonigan
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Correspondence to Shauna B. Wilson.

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This work was completed while Shauna B. Wilson was receiving a Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Fellowship awarded to the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University from the Institute of Education Sciences of the United States Department of Education (R305B04074). Views expressed herein are those of the authors and have not been reviewed or approved by the granting agency.

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Wilson, S.B., Lonigan, C.J. An evaluation of two emergent literacy screening tools for preschool children. Ann. of Dyslexia 59, 115–131 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-009-0026-9

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