NeureLec is a clinical tool of individual application designed to assess the cognitive processes involved in learning to read and write in Spanish in pupils between the 1st and 4th years of Primary Education, with the aim of identifying possible disorders in learning to read and write. The full battery will consist of 20 tests that will enable the assessment of these processes.
The battery is still under development, so not all tests are available yet. Please find below a brief description of each test of the battery:
Task: Lectura de lista de palabras (Reading word-list)
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.
Task: Lectura de lista de palabras (Reading pseudoword-list)
Aim: To assess reading level according to ability for grapheme-phoneme conversion.
Description: The subject will read 2 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.
Task: Decisión léxica lectora (Reading lexical decisión)
Aim: To evaluate visual recognition of words and lexical access.
Description: The subject will see a letter-chain on the screen and will have to press a button to indicate whether it is a real word, or another button to indicate if it is an invented word (pseudoword).
Task: Dictado de palabras (Word-dictation)
Aim: To assess the ability to transcribe dictated sound-chains (real words), by resorting to the lexical route.
Description: The subject will listen to a phoneme-chain corresponding to a real word and will have to write each of the stimuli individually on the template.
Task: Dictado de pseudopalabras (Pseudoword-dictation)
Aim: To assess the ability to transcribe the dictated sound-chains (invented words), by resorting to the sublexical route.
Description: The subject will listen to a phoneme-chain corresponding to an invented word and will have to write each of the stimuli individually on the template.
Task: Decisión ortográfica (Orthographic decisión)
Aim: To assess the ability to identify which is the correct spelling of some words by resorting to the lexical route and accessing the orthographic vocabulary.
Description: The subject will hear a word and see two options on the screen. The subject will have to decide which of the stimuli corresponds to the correct spelling of that word.
Task: Vocabulario (Vocabulary)
Aim: To assess lexical competence.
Description: The subject must name each picture.
Task: Lectura de texto sin sentido (Reading meaningless text)
Aim: To assess the ability to decode at a letter level. To evaluate knowledge on the written for of phonemes and their phoneme-grapheme correspondence in reading.
Description: The subject will see the letters randomly on the screen. The subject must say the name or produce its sound.
Task: Nombrar letras (Letter naming)
Aim: To assess the ability to decode at a letter level. To evaluate knowledge on the written for of phonemes and their phoneme-grapheme correspondence in reading.
Description: The subject will see the letters randomly on the screen. The subject must say the name or produce its sound.
Task: Conciencia fonológica-segmentación sílabas (Phonological awareness-syllable segmentation)
Aim: To assess the ability to identify and manage the minimum structures of oral language, at syllable level, through word segmentation.
Description: The subject will hear an invented word and will have to divide it into syllables, by clapping or knocking on the table once per syllable, while saying it out loud.
Task: Conciencia fonológica-segmentación fonemas (Phonological awareness-phoneme segmentation)
Aim: To assess the ability to identify and manage the minimum structures of oral language, at phoneme level, through word segmentation.
Description: The subject will hear an invented word and will have to divide it into sounds.
Task: Conciencia fonológica – omisión 1er sonido (Phonological awareness – omission of 1st sound)
Aim: To assess the ability to identify and manage the minimum structures of oral language, at phoneme level, by omitting the first sound of the auditory word.
Description: The subject will hear an invented word and will have to omit the first phoneme and produce the rest of the word.
Task: Fluencia fonológica (Phonological fluency)
Aim: To assess the ability for searching and evoking vocabulary quickly based on phonetic criteria.
Description: The subject will hear a sound and will have to recall for a minute as many words as possible beginning with that sound.
Task: Comprensión escrita de oraciones (Written sentence comprehension)
Aim: To assess the ability to understand sentences of varying written complexity.
Description: The subject will see 4 pictures on the screen alongside a written sentence. The subject must choose the picture corresponding to the sentence. The rest of the images are lexical or grammar distractors.
Task: Comprensión escrita de párrafos (Written parapraph comprehension)
Aim: To assess the different processes involved in written language comprehension by introducing new concepts (pseudowords).
Description: The subject will read simple stories including one or several pseudowords, as if they were unknown real words. Afterwards, the subject will have to answer a set of written questions-statements indicating whether they are True or False.
Task: RAN de objetos (Object RAN)
Aim: To assess the ability to name objects quickly.
Description: The subject will have to name a set of images as fast as possible.
Task: RAN de números (Number RAN)
Aim: To assess the ability to name numbers quickly.
Description: The subject must name a set of numbers as fast as possible.
Task: Atención visual (Visual attention)
Aim: To assess the visual attention span (VAS) that measures the number of elements that can be simultaneously processed in a multi-element set.
Description: Global memory task: a letter or number sequence is displayed (4 or 5 elements) in the middle of the screen during 200ms (the time required for a single eye fixation). The subject must indicate verbally as many letters as possible without order restriction.
Partial memory task: the subject must indicate verbally the element (letter or number) that is in the position suggested by the cue/clue.\nLetter-threshold task: the subject must indicate verbally the element he/she sees on the screen for the different time thresholds in which these are displayed.
Task: Búsqueda visual (Visual Search)
Aim: To assess the ability of visual attention involved in the reading processes. It provides a measure for the movement speed of the visual attentional focus in children
Description: The subject must find a target in the shown search setting, they must press the target as soon as they detect it.
Task: Memoria a corto plazo - pseudopalabras (Short term memory - pseudowords)
Aim: To assess the ability of short term memory with invented words.
Description: The subject must repeat the auditory words.
