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There is a PowerPoint file available to accompany this presentation. The BDA Conference 2001 CD-ROM contains 61 PowerPoint files. For details of how to obtain the CD-ROM, please contact the BDA.

Talk; Good Practice - Inf/Junior

Wednesday stream 4 Session 14.00 - 15.40 Length 25 minutes

Getting Special Needs Assessment Right from the Start in the Reception Classroom: A study of the efficacy of a pilot Baseline Assessment on four and five year old children in a mainstream Reception Class

Cathy Svensson

Special Needs Coordinator at The Queen's Church of England School, Tutor/ lecturer at The Hornsby International Dyslexia Centre, London cathysvensson@netscapeonline.co.uk

Abstract

Baseline Assessment is a statutory requirement in England for children on entry to the primary school reception class. This paper describes the efficacy of a baseline assessment screening programme in identifying key skills in 4 and 5 year old children in a reception class. Early skills in speaking and listening, reading, writing and mathematics were assessed in thirty randomly chosen four and five year old reception class children. Correlation and regression analysis were used to study the relationship between key skills and different assessment measures in these topic areas. Phonological awareness tasks at the level of the phoneme were a highly sensitive assessment measure in both reading and writing. This was clearly evidenced from the assessment results. This information alone does not tell the whole story. The understanding of symbolic function is common to reading, writing and maths and can also successfully account for the relationship between the assessment measures. This result draws together current theory on the role of phonological awareness and the understanding of symbolic function as accounting for successful early literacy and numeracy acquisition.