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Thursday stream 4-6 Session 11.35 - 12.50 Length 25 minutes
Jan Alm
Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden jan.alm@psyk.uu.se
Abstract
Findings from the first EC-project in Sweden on the screening and diagnosis of dyslexia in Bi-/Multilingual adults will be presented. The project focused on individuals with Spanish, South American or Finnish background. The first big endeavour in the challenging area of Dyslexia and Bi-/Multilingualism has been started in Sweden. It is an EC-project and aims at developing procedures for screening, diagnosis, finding critical links between assessment and training as well as the development of adequate training programs for dyslexic individuals with a bi/multilingual background. The group of concern were immigrants with these linguistic and ethnical backgrounds and despite living in Sweden for many years did not develop basic knowledge and proficiency in Swedish oral or written language. Because of these deficiencies they cannot find, acquire and keep a place or position in working life. The diagnostic process included three levels. On the first level a diagnostic interview was made by a person from the project who spoke their native language and had knowledge and experience in the field of specific learning difficulties/dyslexia. On the second level an assessment were done in their own language. This assessment included achievements in reading and writing. Also some assessments of verbal cognitive functions were done at this level. The third level was a diagnostic level. The aims on this level was the development and documentation of a good screening process and a procedure for proper diagnosis. Many verbal and non-verbal assessments were made at this level to explore general cognitive functioning and finding the underlying deficits in information processing. Assessment instrument with little formal language requirements were used. Different subtests from the Wechsler scales formed an important part. Quite a few instruments developed from the research of Professor M. Denkla, Professor R. Nicolson, Dr A. Fawcett and Dr Paula Tallal were also used. Nonsense word testing was part of the testing procedure as well. An extensive interview procedure was developed and formed a very important part of the assessment. After this diagnostic procedure 16 individuals (2 x 8) with Spanish or South American background were selected for two 40 weeks full time training courses in reading, spelling and writing. Since it was not possible to obtain a special group with a Finnish background it was decided to do two training groups with dyslexic individuals with a Spanish speaking background. An important part of the courses was teaching of study skills and learning strategies. The courses were specially designed and run by a selected staff of special teacher with background in dyslexia and teaching of Swedish as a foreign language. They were also supported by a networks of specialists from different relevant areas; experts on dyslexia, linguistics, foreign language teaching, neuropsychology etc. During the course appropriate pedagogical methods were to be developed, used and evaluated. The present session will mainly discuss how the diagnostic battery was developed and the rationales for choosing our diagnostic procedures. Information will be given about the diagnostic interview, the different tests used and how the test results were interpreted to arrive to a final diagnostic conclusion and decision.
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