Students with Reading Difficulties
Diagnostic Testing
Reading instruction should focus on the early detection of possible reading disabilities, such as dyslexia, and of students who are slower in developing reading skills. The Salzburger Lese-Screening 2–9 is a diagnostic tool that measures students’ basal reading skills, enabling teachers to analyze students’ abilities from Grade 2 to 9.7 Results from this screening process are available within a short time period (about three minutes per person), thus allowing remedial programs to be implemented efficiently, individually, and more effectively. The tool is mandatory only in Grades 3 and 5 as part of a group screening.
There is an effort to train primary school teachers to identify reading deficiencies or problems by listening to students read aloud and transcribing their reading according to the Wedel-Wolff method.8 An audiovisual training program called Reading Means Learning (Lesen können heißt lernen können) is available to all teachers but is not compulsory.
If necessary, educational and psychological counselors or schools’ special teachers and psychologists investigate students’ needs and provide an individualized remedial program. Such a program requires intensive cooperation with students’ teachers and family. Some schools provide dyslexic students with reading instruction in a separate working group. In other schools, teachers work with dyslexic students within the regular classroom as well as outside of regular class instruction. Some teachers develop (sometimes in cooperation with psychological experts) an individualized development program for students with reading difficulties, especially for slowly developing readers.
To determine students’ phonological awareness, standardized reading tests often are administered at the end of the first school year or the beginning of the second to enable an exact diagnosis of reading difficulties. Tutors with special training assist students with reading deficiencies in additional or integrated lessons. The amount of instruction varies from province to province, and there are differences even within provinces.
Moreover, there is a diagnostic tool for self-evaluation named Informelle Kompetenzmessung since 2010. This tool supports teachers in evaluating the competence of the students according to the Austrian Educational Standards. Therefore the tool can be helpful in determining the need for support and in organizing instruction. The tool is available for different grade levels and areas of competency, including reading instruction in primary school. Offered by the Federal Institute for Educational Research, Innovation, and Development of the Austrian Educational Sector, the tool is optional but used by nearly 70 percent of schools.9
Instruction for Children with Reading Difficulties
The Austrian strategic program promoting reading competencies of students with learning disabilities is based on the principle that the reading process needs to be embedded in the entire concept of instruction (i.e., networked learning). The promotion of reading should be planned as an integrated part of weekly instruction. Teachers also should take into account students’ individual needs, abilities, and interests.
While the curriculum may vary depending on the particular learning disability, there are common reading instruction objectives and curriculum requirements for students with special education needs. These include:
- Making students aware of the necessity to read in everyday life
- Recognizing how language related activities are affected by the interdependent link between speaking, reading, and writing
- Promoting reading as a significant means of obtaining information as well as its other functions (e.g., entertainment and gaining an understanding of oneself and others)
- Recognizing the significance of media and integrating reading education into other subjects taught