Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment DORA reading test (and the 2E child)

Have many users here used the DORA reading test on their child? I am wondering how accurate it is. I know that my child is 2E (FSIQ131, dylexic, CAPD, ADD, borderline AS), so I do expect some scatter. Last year she had "Some scatter" with spelling 2yrs behind and Vocab 4yrs ahead. 12 months later her spelling and vocab have hardly shifted at all (so spelling is now 3yrs below and Vocab about 3yrs above grade), her word recognition has leapt up to SIX yrs above grade level and her comprehension up 3ish years to 5 years above grade level. I am kind of thrown as to how accurate this could be.

We are Australian, our levels could be expected to be subtly different, accent may have impacted the parts of the test she was required to listen and respond, but I am guessing not THAT different.

I don't have the highest opinion of its accuracy, but then I'm a complete layperson.

I should add that she started yr2 not able to accurately name the entire alphabet by both name and sound and completely unable to read. 3.5yrs later she is reading for pleasure at a good level but I am struggling with the idea that she's got a reading level somewhere between yr8 and yr11? But still can't spell... She did have a technical issue with the spelling (she was unaware that it was not getting all of her keystrokes and submitted multiple words with the first half missing), but she really can't spell.

Mum3, is anyone remediating the 2E piece? That will change things a lot.

DeeDee

Yes indeed, she's had a lot of intervention. But i am still struggling with the dew she's gone from kindy to upper highschool reading in 3.5yrs. She's not PG, she's barely MG and she's got a whole raft of issues. I KNOW she's made great inroads but that seems, well WOW... But I would have said her spelling was closer to age appropriate now.

The school at which my dds started school used DORA but neither of my kids has taken it in like six years so I have very little experience with it. What I do remember was dd13's 2nd grade teacher saying that she saw a lot of strange results on it that did not line up with what she saw in class. There were kids coming in with some very high scores whose reading, vocab, etc. was nowhere near that high in class and there were those whose scores were well below what they were demonstrating in class.

This teacher was one of the better ones dd had and I trusted her opinion. Is this the only verbal or reading measure your dd is being given? Also, if it is indicating upper high school reading comprehension, do you see that in real life? For instance, could she read a book like Pride and Prejudice or To Kill a Mockingbird comfortably (reading level not theme)?

I don't have any knowledge of the DORA test so can't help you with that, but fwiw spelling and reading ability (ability to sound out words, understand phonics, comprehend what you read etc) are different types of abilities so it's not impossible at all to have a child who can read at a high level and still struggle with spelling. We have three of them in my family, as well as an adult (dh)

My ds12 has dysgraphia, and in his case, part of the spelling challenge is related to his dysgraphia (yet he has read - with good comprehension - at a college level + since very early elementary school). My oldest dd is also a way-ahead-of-grade level reader but is MG (if that, she's also had IQ testing that doesn't put her in the gifted range at all), not HG or PG. I don't think that one *has* to be HG to be several years ahead of grade level in reading. If I look around at my adult friends, there is a huge variation in both enjoyment of and reading ability.

Also one last note - my MG dd initially struggled in reading and was way behind grade level, but we found out in 2nd grade that she had a vision challenge. After she went through vision therapy and her vision challenge was remediated she made huge rapid strides in her reading ability and went from struggling and behind grade level to several years above grade level in a very short time. I imagine you could see the same type of progress with other targeted types of remediation. So for now, I wouldn't focus so much on the tests as on what you see happening with your dd in school and at home - it sounds like she's making good progress in reading, so that's great! If spelling is a worry, is she getting any kind of help with it? There are different approaches to learning spelling depending on how individual children learn. Also for some children, such as our dysgraphic ds, using technology while writing helps with spelling.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thanks to you both.

I do realise that she's always going to have much weaker spelling than reading, she's got terrible phonemic awareness, no doubt related to the CAPD, she's dyslexic, she has had to have every phonetic rule drilled painstakingly into her 1:1 (and now knows them all but just applies one randomly rather than knowing what goes into which word). We'll do our best but she's unlikely to ever be great at spelling. She's just been moved from a private school that provided exceptional special ed support to a public, so she's going to get no support at all now, beyond what I provide at home. Hopefully I will be able to do enough for her.

As for whether it matches the kid I see. I don't know. I certainly don't think she's up to a deep understanding of high school text no, in part because her social comprehension is not there. I do think her reading ability and comprehension is probably way under estimated at school because her reading aloud is still poor and her poor social comprehension often gets mistaken for reading comprehension issues.

Last year's DORA I looked at and thought "Yep, that seems fairly likely to be in the ball park". This year I just don't know. I would like to think she's made progress but that's a) A LOT of progress in one year for a kid with some big issues and b) higher than I find believable.

She has always had that visual spatial gifted kid thing of being really good at guessing on computer based tests. She managed to find every single fun thing Starfall had to offer without ever learning a single intended lesson.

Ok I have just tried looking up the lexiles of recently read and enjoyed books and she's definitely comfortably reading in the mid 800s, I am sure that she COULD read above that level with comprehension, but not with comfort for pleasure, she has a book on her bed at the moment that is probably around mid 800s level that she gave up on because she was daunted by the length. She's able to read quite fast now but still somewhat disabled by what she believes she can do. So it is hard to know... It's hard to judge what she COULD do when she is not inclined to stretch herself at all and is daunted by what she believes will be hard to read.

Just found this link:

http://www.letsgolearn.com/faqs/pri...s_vary_in_range_for_individual_students/

Interesting explanation of the common unexpectedly "high" results (word recognition being one). And the common "lows". The explanation of the tendancy to low comprehension scores (which is not my problem) was quite interesting and tied in directly with what I said above - the comprehension is based on non fiction texts, removing or reducing the need for social comprehension in the reading comprehension score which I know is weakness for my child. Maybe she CAN read non-fiction at that level.

Also, she was bored, whinging and had to be bribed to do it, and she's not in the american school system, certainly the american history she read in last year's test she would NEVER have encountered previously. All of which should have made her more likely to score lower not higher.

It's something to think about. Still not sure what to conclude.

Actually I just remembered the name of a series she was reading earlier in they year and looked it up, they are all low 1000s. Which surprised me, I am not 100% on how accurate the lexile thing is. But maybe she is reading for pleasure at that level when the content is not socially/emotionally beyond her.