The Development and Preliminary Evidence of Validity and Reliability of a Spanish Static and Dynamic Assessment of Decoding

• Main Author: Ditty, Kayla Brooke
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2020
• Subjects: reading; dynamic assessment; Spanish; decoding; Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/8481; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9481&context=etd

The purpose of the current study was to develop and administer a Spanish static and dynamic assessment of decoding and other important reading measures. Using the best available resources regarding Spanish literacy acquisition and Spanish language development, a preliminary Spanish dynamic and static screener was developed. The resulting test was named the Spanish Dynamic Decoding Measure (S-DDM) and is a counterpart to the original DDM available in English. This test contains three subtests: decoding, phonemic awareness, and word identification. The S-DDM was administered to eight bilingual Spanish-English speaking students with varying levels of Spanish language ability and reading proficiency in grades ranging from second to fourth grade. The results from all three subtests of the S-DDM were analyzed to report the levels of validity, reliability, and variance observed in the administration of the test and performance of the participants. There was a wide range of performance on the pretest sections of the dynamic assessment decoding subtest, and performance at or near ceiling on the posttest sounds sections. Modifiability scores were strong for the students who were not receiving special education services while the two participants receiving special education both received weaker modifiability ratings. There was a wide range of variance observed on all subtests of both the phonemic awareness and word identification subtests, with the exception of the phoneme blending target of the phonemic awareness subtest. Interrater reliability and administration fidelity were found to be within acceptable measures. Results indicated that the test is sensitive to varying degrees of Spanish reading proficiency and reading ability. Future research is needed to determine the effectiveness of this screener in identifying Spanish-speaking students who are at-risk for reading difficulties.