NEW! Two guides to using and understanding the Get Ready to Read! screening tool For Early Childhood Educators and Care Providers
Since The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) created the screening tool six years ago, it has studied the ways the screening tool is being used in different early education, childcare, and home settings by early education and child care professionals, parents, researchers, and evaluators. Get Ready to Read!: A Guide for Early Childhood Educators and Care Providers provides teachers and childcare providers with information about how to understand and use the results of the Get Ready to Read! screening tool. It focuses on what the total score on the Get Ready to Read! screening tool means, and how the Get Ready to Read! screening tool relates to other common measures used in early childhood settings. For Researchers
Get Ready to Read!: A Guide for Researchers provides researchers and others familiar with interpreting research findings with detailed information about the concurrent and predictive validity of the Get Ready to Read! screening tool and how the screening tool “maps on” to other measures. Get Ready to Read! research reports are available here in pdf format. To read and print the reports you need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which your computer probably already has. If not, you can download it for free at www.adobe.com
Background about the Get Ready to Read! screening tool
The Get Ready to Read! screening tool, from the National Center for Learning Disabilities, is a reliable, research-based series of questions for children in the year before they enter kindergarten to determine whether they have the early literacy skills they need to become readers.
The screening tool development was led by Grover J. Whitehurst, Ph.D. who is now Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Christopher Lonigan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Psychology at Florida State University, conducted the field tests for the tool.
Dr. Whitehurst has been researching developing language skills in children for 34 years, and 12 years ago began to link language to learning to read in his research. His research identifies two types of skills in young children. One type, called "inside-out skills," relates to specific abilities needed to read, such as knowing the names of letters of the alphabet and what sounds letters make. The other type, the "outside-in skills," include vocabulary and knowledge of the outside world, the skills that lead to a child's capacity to understand.
Both of these sets of skills need to be developed at the preschool level, according to Dr. Whitehurst. "If the child is low in either type of skill, in either area, that child is at risk of serious reading problems," he says. "Children who have problems early continue to have problems--it's a vicious cycle, and it just gets worse and worse. My emphasis is to prevent problems--to make sure these children have the skills they need before they get to elementary school so problems don't develop."
The screening tool focuses on the inside-out skills in three areas: print knowledge, emergent writing, and linguistic awareness . By pointing to pictures in a series of questions, children can demonstrate skills in these areas.
"There's a developmental sequence we're identifying," Dr. Whitehurst points out. "Any problems that emerge will signal a need for parents to seek help, and possibly a professional consultation. In turn, parents can use the results to lobby for their preschool to do a better job of teaching reading. We want to empower parents to do more for their children."
The Get Ready to Read! Development Team
Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst, Ph.D. (Principal Investigator)
Christopher Lonigan, Ph.D. (Principal Investigator)
Jack Fletcher, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas, Houston
Victoria Molfese, Ph.D., Director, Early Childhood Research Center, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
Joseph Torgesen, Ph.D., Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology &
Education, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
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