Dialect: Integrating technology and reading assessment to diagnose Spanish reading difficulties

The current study describes the development of an Ipad-based assessment tool to identify Spanish reading difficulties of Kindergarten through third-grade students. The tool follows a whole-to-part approach to reading diagnosis, and provides valuable information about reading development from the perspective of each subprocess. The tool was validated in a sample of 1378 Chilean students from Kindergarten to third grade. Results from this pilot study revealed that 79% of first graders are lagging behind in their reading development, that phonological and phonemic instruction in the assessed kindergarten classrooms is almost non existent, and that 25% of students beyond first grade have reading difficulties in at least one subprocess. The use of an Ipad-based assessment is an efficient way to diagnose early reading difficulties and provide intervention strategies to overcome those difficulties in a timely manner, particularly in a large classroom context where teachers lack knowledge about how to diagnose reading ability.