To understand the difficulties of assessing the multilingual child, let us consider a case study.

Sai, now aged 15, was born in Hong Kong, and speaks Chinese (Cantonese) as his first language. Although at a top English boarding school for four years, his spelling is not good, and may be holding him back. He has full EAL support, but his reading and writing were very poor, and did not appear to be advancing as quickly as other Chinese speakers. The concern is that he may be dyslexic. But there is also concern about the labeling given the cultural context.

We know that if we can match the teaching style to learning style more will be learnt in a given time. If the child prefers to learn with visual material, then visual support material should be used. However, we cannot know the Achilles learning style unless we assess the abilities and difficulties, including their cognitive skills and deficits.

Defining dyslexia

The British Psychological Society (BPS, 1999) working definition is: Dyslexia is evident when accurate and fluent word reading and/or spelling develops very incompletely or with great difficulty.

This definition offers little in the way of help for assessment or remediation. An alternative, proposed by the author, and already adopted by some institutions such, as the Adult Dyslexia Organisation, is as follows:

Dyslexia is a specific difficulty in the acquisition reading, writing and spelling skills and may be caused by a combination of phonological, visual and auditory processing deficits. Word retrieval and speed of processing difficulties may also be present. A number of possible underlying biological causes of these cognitive deficits have been identified, and it is probable that in any one individual there may be several causes.

This provides a causal explanation that will work in all languages, which may assist in processing the framework for assessment, and ultimately in the design of an appropriate individual education plan.

Since we are investigating the learning style of the individual, it is both acceptable and correct to talk to the child in terms of attempting to assess their preferred learning style, and them build a learning structure based on that style. That relieves any of the difficulties that may occur as a result of using labels such as 'dyslexia', 'disabilities' and 'difficulty', either in the minds of the child or the parents.

A framework for testing

Following extensive research using the International Cognitive Profiling Test (ICPT), developed by the author, the following framework is proposed;

• Phonological segmentation and assembly skills
• Auditory system
• Visual system
• Semantic lexicon
• Speed of processing .

This framework may help us to understand the nature of the difficulty, confirm observed behaviour and/or suggest areas for further observation. However, it is not claimed to cover all aspects, and every individual should be treated on an individual basis. Further testing may be required to investigate areas not covered by these tests.

• Phonological segmentation and assembly skills
  • Rhyme
  • Alliteration
• Auditory skills
  • Auditory short term memory
  • Auditory discrimination
• Visual skills
  • Visual short term memory
  • Visual sequential memory
  • Visual perception
• Speed of processing
• Semantic access
• Achievement tests
  • Reading: word and non-word
  • Spelling: word and non-word
• Non-verbal reasoning
• Quantitative reasoning
• Motor skills
• Personal interview

Testing the individual - Case study

Although Sai was the child under review, testing was also performed on other Chinese children of the same age at the same school. The rhyming skills for Sai were found to be poor, and non-word reading skills were no better than an eight year old English child. These two tasks are often taken as indicators of specific learning difficulties (dyslexia). But his skills in these key areas were not much lower than other Chinese and Japanese children, questioning the English teaching methods for older children. However, with Sai it was found that he also had a very poor auditory short term memory, reinforced when he revealed that he preferred the English teaching method to the rote learning style in China. As a result of the testing, all EAL students that showed problems in literacy areas have now been given IEPs which incorporate the structured, sequential multi-sensory teaching methods usually used with dyslexic individuals, which, it is hoped, will help overcome these difficulties,

Most people would agree that Arthur is dyslexic, since even following a structured sequential multisensory phonics programme he has difficulties learning the language, suggesting that it is not a exposure, but phonological segmentation and assembly skill and auditory short term memory difficulties that are the cause. But all acre that labelling is not needed. What is needed is support and appropriate teaching.

The need for testing in languages other than English

Where possible tests should also be performed in the child's first language, which will required appropriately translated and modified version. The ICPT has been trialled with success in a number of languages as diverse as Welsh, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese and Hungarian. However some tests may be performed in the first language without the need for translation, and without even understanding the reply. For example, in rapid naming of picture it is the speed, and hesitancy, that is important, as they rarely make mistakes. This may be more useful when the child does not have verbal fluency in English, which may be reflected in their responses.

Conclusions

The test battery has been tried in a number of languages, and appears to work well in identifying the specific areas of difficulty the child has. It is not designed to place children into arbitrary categories, but to offer a greater understanding of their cognitive profile, their literacy difficulties and their learning style which may lead to the provision of more appropriate teaching.

Only by understanding the child's difficulties, including the cognitive profile, will we be able to build an individual education plan that is appropriate, and only then can we claim to be truly supporting the child who does not speak English as their first language.

For further details, please contact Ian Smythe on ian.smythe@ukonline.co.uk or telephone +44 (0) 20 8770 0888.