Assessments of literacy skills in Basque

NeureHizki is an instrument for individual application that can be used in both educational and clinical settings, designed to assess the cognitive processes involved in learning to read and write in Basque among pupils between the 1st year of Primary Education and 4th year of Secondary Education. Its aim is to identify possible disorders in learning to read and write or potential risk of suffering from them. The instrument comprises 4 batteries that include different tests depending on the school stage, with some tests being the same or similar in all the batteries and others being different.

The battery is still under development, so not all tests are available yet. See below a brief description of each of the tests of the battery:

Test:

Hiztegia

Aim:
Assessing lexical competence using pictures.
Description:
The subject has to name the picture presented, orally.

Test:

Zentzurik gabeko testuaren irakurketa

Aim:
To assess mechanical reading in a written context, without any semantic help.
Description:
The subject will read a non-sense text on a sheet of paper. The reading time will be of 3 minutes, at most.

Test:

Hitz zerrendaren irakurketa

Aim:
To assess reading level according to frequency and length of the words displayed.
Description:
The subject will read 4 lists of words of varying frequency (high-low) and length (long-short) on paper. The tablet will record the reading process, as well as the reading time and mistakes.

Test:

Pseudohitz zerrendaren irakurketa

Aim:
To assess reading level according to ability for grapheme-phoneme conversion.
Description:
The subject will read 2 lists of words varying frequency (high-low) and length (long-short) on paper. The tablet will record the reading process, as well as the reading time and mistakes.

Test:

Fonemen banaketa

Aim:
To assess ability to identify minimum structures of oral/spoken language, at a phoneme level, by segmenting the auditory pseudoword.
Description:
The subject will hear an invented word and will have to divide it into sounds.

Test:

Lehenengo hotsaren omisioa

Aim:
To assess the ability to identify and manipulate minimum structures of oral language, at phoneme level, by omitting the first sound of the auditory pseudoword.
Description:
The subject will listen to an invented word and, afterwards, will have to omit the first phoneme and produce the rest.

Test:

RAN objektuekin

Aim:
To assess the ability to name pictures quickly.
Description:
The subject will have to name a series of pictures as fast as possible.

Test:

RAN zenbakiekin

Aim:
To assess ability to name numbers quickly.
Description:
The subject must name a series of numbers as fast as possible.

Test:

Letren izendapena

Aim:
To assess the ability to decode letters. To evaluate knowledge of the written form of phonemes and their grapheme-phoneme correspondence.
Description:
The subject will be shown a piece of paper with letters on it and will be asked to produce the sound corresponding to each letter. The letters will be presented in lower or upper case, depending on the battery.

Test:

Silaben banaketa

Aim:
To assess the ability to identify oral language structures at syllable level.
Description:
The subject will listen to a made-up word (pseudo-word) and then divide it into syllables.

Test:

Lehenengo silaba kentzea

Aim:
To assess the ability to identify and manage the minimal structures of spoken language at syllable level.
Description:
The subject will hear a made-up word (pseudo-word) and will then have to omit the first syllable and produce the remainder.

Test:

Jario semantikoa

Aim:
To assess the ability to search and recall lexical information quickly using semantic information.
Description:
The subject will listen to a word and will have to evoke for 1 minute the highest number of words belonging to that semantic group.

Test:

Oroimen fonologikoa

Aim:
To assess the ability to keep, retrieve and articulate retained phonological information.
Description:
The subject will hear a made-up word (pseudo-word), and then repeat it orally in an accurate way.

Other tools

Assessment of oral language in Basque
Assessment of oral language in Spanish
Assessment of literacy skills in Spanish