|
 |
The Hechinger Report
The game that can spot preschoolers at risk for reading deficits
New screening app can identify struggling readers as early as preschool
By Jackie Mader
January 9, 2020
What if a short digital game for young children could help lower the
high school drop out rate? That’s a long-range goal of a new effort by
a team from Boston Children’s Hospital in collaboration with Florida
State University, which has developed a 15 to 20-minute game that tests
children’s early literacy skills and generates a red flag for those in
need of extra support. Research shows if a child is not reading
by the end of third grade, they are far more likely to drop out of high
school, which means early support can be critical.
Called the Boston Children’s Hospital Early Literacy Screener, the new
game is administered on a touchscreen tablet. Kids as young as
4-years-old do tasks geared at assessing their literacy skills with the
help of on-screen cartoon animals. Those include touching the picture
that matches the word that is said out loud, identifying rhyming words,
and finding the picture that matches a spoken sentence.
Current methods of helping struggling readers are more “reactive” than
proactive, says Nadine Gaab, an associate professor of pediatrics at
Boston Children’s Hospital and the Harvard Medical School and the
creator of the game. Under current practice, many children aren’t
identified as struggling readers until second or third grade or even
later, Gaab said, when their teachers flag them and, hopefully, begin
to provide extra support. That means they miss out on a prime early
reading intervention period during kindergarten and first grade. “We
basically let a child struggle over a long period of time before we
take severe actions and give them access to the help they need,” Gaab
said. “What we are trying to do is move…to a preventative support model
in early literacy.”
The game is targeted at ages 4 to 6. Gaab hopes the screener will
ultimately help teachers who must teach reading to large groups of
children. After a student finishes the game, the program creates a risk
profile for that student and provides resources and suggestions for
next steps on an online platform.
Most states, at least 37, have a policy regarding early identification
of dyslexia, a learning disorder that impacts reading, spelling and
writing; and 21 states have a statute or code that addresses screening
students in grades K-3, according to a 2018 report by Education
Commission of the States. But many teachers lack the capacity to live
up to the requirements. Gaab said she was partly inspired to create the
game after meeting with teachers who were overwhelmed about the
imperative to screen students and interpret the results. States
currently use a range of methods to screen students.
The screener, which was selected as one of eight winners by the 2019
MIT Solve program for early childhood programs, has been tested by
about 800 kindergarteners or entering kindergarteners in 42 schools in
nine states with an anticipated release date of this fall. The game
will be offered at a low-cost to schools, Gaab said, with the eventual
goal to partner with preschools, libraries and pediatricians “so that
every child has the chance to be screened and develop their full
potential.”
|
|
|
|
