G G A Douglas, M Grimley, E W Hill, R A Long, M J Tobin
University of Birmingham, VICTAR School of Education, Birmingham, United Kingdom
A three year research project was undertaken to develop standardised reading scores for children with low vision. 476 children (278 boys, 198 girls; 5 - 17 years) drawn from 39 schools in the UK were tested. The Neale Analysis of Reading Ability was used which assesses children's reading in terms of speed, accuracy and comprehension. A linear regression was undertaken to describe the relationship between reading scores and age (accuracy β=.47, R²=38.1; speed β=.50, R²=28.1; comprehension β=.22, R²=39.8), and to generate standardised reading scores. Comparing these scores to that of normally sighted children demonstrates that partially sighted children's reading lags that of their sighted peers. Importantly, this lag increases with age in all aspects of reading (accuracy, speed and comprehension). Multiple regression analyses were carried out which explored other key variables. The following variables were found to be predictors of reading ability: age, reading distance, age by visual acuity, and age by reading distance. Together the predictors accounted for 42.4% (accuracy), 34.3% (speed), and 43.8% (comprehension) of the variance. English as an additional language did not significantly predict any aspects of reading. The research team has developed a teacher's manual that presents standardised scores and the influence other variables have on reading. This enables teachers to better assess partially sighted children's reading and make more informed judgements about teaching intervention. This large sample provides a very rich data set facilitating further analysis (e.g. investigating impacts of different types of visual impairment, and different reading errors).
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