Literacy Assessment Via Telepractice Is Comparable to Face-to-Face Assessment in Children with Reading Difficulties Living in Rural Australia

Abstract

Web-based technology can enable remote delivery of literacy assessments. The technology has the potential to increase the availability of assessments to meet the needs of children who live remotely, in a timely manner and at their family's convenience.

An evidence‐based synthesis of instructional reading and spelling procedures using telepractice: A rapid review in the context of COVID‐19

“…Two studies used surveys (Hodge et al 2019, Vasquez andSlocum 2012), one recorded qualitative observations of student engagement during telepractice sessions (Houge and Geier 2009) and one used informal conversation (Wright et al 2011). Together, these four studies suggest that students were engaged in their telepractice sessions (Hodge et al 2019) and wanted to attend. They reportedly showed an increased interest in reading following telepractice instruction (Houge and Geier 2009).…”

“…For the two studies evaluating the use of telepractice for administration of reading and spelling assessments, results revealed a high level of agreement between onsite and online scoring of assessments by administrators (Hodge et al 2019, Waite et al 2010. For Hodge Lisa Furlong et al et al (2019), results showed very strong agreement between telepractice and onsite scores across all but one assessment, which still demonstrated strong agreement (Hodge et al 2019). For Waite et al (2010), scores obtained from the onsite and online environments were not significantly different indicating that the testing environment did not affect the accuracy of the online assessment (Waite et al 2010).…”

“…Houge and Geier (2009) provided a single group of adolescents with one-to-one reading and spelling instruction delivered via webcam in a pre-test/post-test design. Hodge et al (2019) used a diagnostic accuracy study design to evaluate the level of agreement between when simultaneous onsite, and telepractice reading and spelling assessments were conducted. Kohnen et al (2020) adopted a pre-test/post-test design where participants acted as their own controls in a no-training phase (waitlist), followed by an intervention phase with testing at three timepoints (baseline, following the no-training period and post-intervention).…”

“…In the telepractice literacy domain, instruction was the most common service provided via telepractice (Houge and Geier 2009, Houge et al 2007, Vasquez et al 2011, Vasquez and Slocum 2012, followed by intervention (Kohnen et al 2020, Lee et al 2017 and assessment (Hodge et al 2019, Waite et al 2010. There is no published empirical evidence for telepractice delivery of reading and spelling instruction within a classroom setting.…”

“…Two studies evaluated delivery of reading and spelling assessments via telepractice. In Hodge et al (2019), simultaneous scoring took place between an online research assistant (delivering the assessments via telepractice) and a teacher (sitting in the same room as the student in a remote location). Similarly, an online speech-language pathologist administered and scored assessments simultaneously with an onsite speechlanguage pathologist (sitting with the student in another room) in Waite et al (2010).…”