I am getting conflicting information from various people regarding screening English Language Learners for reading in their dominant language. Do studies indicate that it is better to screen students for reading difficulty in their dominant language if they have had no formal English instruction?

The short answer is yes. Students should be assessed in the language in which they are fluent. If a student who does not speak English is tested in English and fails a reading screening, it would be impossible to know whether the failure was due to the fact that they did not understand English or whether it was because they could not read. Therefore, students need to either be proficient in English or be screened in their native language.

Here is some information that might be helpful:

• www.understood.org
• onlinelibrary.wiley.com

When making a diagnosis, we assess a student’s language comprehension skills in order to determine whether we are looking at dyslexia, in which the student will have solid spoken language comprehension skills, versus a more global reading disorder, in which the student will also have poor spoken language skills in addition to challenges with reading.

The students with language disorder and reading disorder will need intervention in spoken language and reading, whereas, the student with dyslexia, who has intact language comprehension skills, needs reading intervention. Regardless, the reading intervention needed early on is structured literacy.