Analyzing the Responses of Primary School Children
in Dyslexia Screening Tests
Mithun Haridas1, Nirmala Vasudevan1,2, Akshay Iyer1, Rema Menon1, Prema Nedungadi1
1
Center for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education (CREATE), 2Department of Physics,
Amrita University
Amritapuri, India
mithunh@amrita.edu, nirmalav@am.amrita.edu
Abstract—Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects
accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Despite its
prevalence, many primary school teachers and educators in India
are unaware of dyslexia. Consequently, many students struggle
through school without appropriate support. To facilitate
identification of dyslexic students, we designed a screening test
and administered it to 135 primary school children studying in
Government and private schools in Haripad, a small town in
Kerala State, India. The tasks included letter recognition, word
recognition, recognition of rhyming words, spelling tests, and
handwriting tasks in English and Malayalam (the local
language), and assessed phonological awareness, visual
processing, rapid naming, and motor skills. The students’
answers were analyzed, mistakes were categorized, and possible
causes for the mistakes were examined. This paper details the
design of the screening test, its administration, the results, and
conclusions drawn from the results.
Keywords—Dyslexia; Screening Test; Assessment;
Identification; Malayalam; English; India; Kerala; Bilingual;
I. INTRODUCTION
Dyslexia is a learning disability that impairs a person’s
ability to read, write, and spell despite adequate teaching and
normal vision and hearing [1]. Dyslexia occurs across a range
of intellectual abilities [2], [3], and many dyslexics have above-
average intelligence. But since reading is critical to a child’s
success in school, even high-ability dyslexics may struggle
through school. However, if dyslexia is detected early on,
children can be taught accurate and fluent reading and spelling
using special techniques. These children also can be taught the
coping skills they need to compensate for their disability and
can pursue studies successfully in a regular classroom.
Dyslexia is a fairly prevalent condition, with approximately
7–10% of the world’s population (500–700 million people)
displaying traits of dyslexia [1], [4]. Further, it is believed that
approximately 4% of the world’s population (280 million
people) suffers from severe forms of dyslexia [4]. Studies in
India indicate that approximately 10% of children (more than
28 million children ages 4–14 as per the 2011 census) is
dyslexic [5].
Despite the staggering number of dyslexics, many school
teachers in India have limited knowledge of dyslexia and are
ill-equipped to recognize and advocate appropriate remedial
action for dyslexics in their classrooms [5]. Recognizing this
fact, we designed a dyslexia screening test and are
administering it in primary schools in Kerala State, India. The
test has been administered six times, thrice at a private school
and thrice at a Government school. 135 students, aged 7 – 10,
have been tested, and a few students have been recommended
for further evaluation by dyslexia specialists. This paper
details the design of the screening test, its administration, an
analysis of the 135 students’ answers, and conclusions drawn
from the analysis.
Organization of the paper: Section II briefly describes
dyslexia assessment in the United States and Great Britain and
outlines the role of screening tests in the assessment process.
Section III (Literature Review) provides an overview of
current screeners and elucidates the need for screening tests
designed specifically for the Indian population. Section IV
(Methods) describes the design and administration of our
screening tests, while Section V (Results) reports the
performance of 135 children in the tests. In Section VI, we
analyze the students’ performance and discuss our findings.
We conclude the paper (Section VII Conclusion) by
summarizing the findings of this study.
II. BACKGROUND
Although many Indian school teachers may be unaware of
dyslexia, it is widely recognized elsewhere in the world. In the
United States, any child experiencing learning difficulties in
the classroom is referred to the school psychologist who
conducts a battery of tests to diagnose the cause, which may or
may not be dyslexia.
Phillips et al. (educators from the United Kingdom)
proposed the following model for the assessment of dyslexia
in any child observed to have learning difficulties or else
identified ‘at risk’ in screening tests. The teacher (or parent)
should first examine a comprehensive checklist of common
dyslexia indicators and compare the behavior exhibited by the
child. Information from other adults interacting with the child
also should be obtained. On the basis of all this information, a
few teaching strategies may be attempted and the outcome
monitored [2].
If these strategies prove ineffective, educational
psychologists (EPs) and speech and language therapists
(SALTs/SLTs) should be consulted. Medical tests, such as Screening Individual/ Paper/ Age Standardization
vision and hearing tests, should be conducted to exclude the Test, Year Group Computer Range Sample
Dyslexia
possibility of any sensory impairment. Based on the outcomes 1,356
Screener, 2004 Group Computer 5 - 16
of all tests, the psychologist may recommend that the child be [13]
individuals
assessed for dyslexia or else suggest other causes for the
child’s learning difficulties [2].
More details on various screening tests are provided in [2],
Dyslexia assessment typically spans several sessions [14], and [15].
where the psychologist tests reading, writing, spelling, and
cognitive processing. The child’s functional reading level is In India, the National Institute of Mental Health and
compared with the child’s reading potential, which is Neurosciences (NIMHANS) designed a series of tests to
evaluated by intelligence tests. All aspects of the reading assess learning disabilities, but not specifically dyslexia [16].
process are examined to identify the sources of the child’s More recently, a research team from the National Brain
difficulties. The testing further assesses how the child absorbs, Research Centre (NBRC) developed screening tests, Dyslexia
processes, and uses information. The tests determine whether Assessment for Languages of India (DALI), in English and the
the child learns better when the information is presented in an following Indian languages: Hindi, Marathi, and Kannada
auditory, visual, or kinesthetic format. They assess whether [17].
the child expresses himself better orally or in a tactile- There is a compelling need to design dyslexia screening
kinesthetic manner. The tests also evaluate how the child uses tests for all Indian children. Early identification and
all modalities (auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic) in intervention is critical for any child with learning difficulties
conjunction with each other [2], [6]. [18]. Screening tests from the US or the UK may not yield
very accurate results for the following reasons:
A. Dyslexia Screening Tests
Screening tests may be used as a first step in the (1) These tests contain several words (such as sledge or
identification process. They attempt to identify children ‘at brooch) that an Indian child might not have encountered.
risk’ of dyslexia by assessing visual processing, basic (2) Many Indian children, unlike their American and British
numeracy, sequencing, and fine motor skills, in addition to counterparts, have not had a phonics-based reading
spelling and writing. Screening tests are typically timed tests instruction as part of their curriculum.
taking approximately 30 minutes to complete. They may be
either pencil-and-paper tests or computer-based; some tests are (3) Several case studies have demonstrated that a child may
designed to be individually administered, while others may be have dyslexic difficulties in one language but not in
administered to a group or a whole class. another [19], [20], [21]. Therefore, screening tests have
to be specifically designed for the various Indian
languages.
III. LITERATURE REVIEW
There are some commercially available screening tests Finally, as we discuss in Section VI (D), our own
standardized in the UK and the US (Table I). observations indicate the need for tests designed with Indian
children in mind.
TABLE I. DYSLEXIA SCREENING TESTS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN
IV. METHODS
Screening Individual/ Paper/ Age Standardization
Test, Year Group Computer Range Sample A. Designing a Dyslexia Screening Test
Bangor
All Partly Dyslexia research began over a hundred years ago, and
Dyslexia Test, Individual Paper
ages standardized
1982 [8] researchers have identified some of the underlying cognitive
The Dyslexia processing deficits. These include deficits in phonological
Early awareness (an awareness of the sound structure of words),
4y 6m
Screening Test
– Second
Individual Paper – 6y 400 individuals visual processing, rapid naming skills (the ability to promptly
5m name any object when presented with a visual representation
Edition (DEST-
2), 2001 [9] of the same), and motor skills [1], [2]. Thus, we designed the
The Dyslexia
6y 6m
screening test to assess the cognitive skills listed in Table II.
Screening Test 774 + Table II also specifies the tasks used to assess each skill.
Individual Paper – 11y
Junior (DST-J), individuals
5m
2002 [10]
Dyslexia TABLE II. TASKS IN THE DYSLEXIA SCREENING TEST
Portfolio, 2008 Individual Paper 6 – 16 y 603 individuals
[11] Cognitive Skill Task
Lucid Rhyming tasks: deciding whether or not pairs of
Assessment words rhymed
8.0 –
System for 1,107 Phonological Correlating phonemes (letter sounds) with
Group Computer 11y
Schools individuals awareness graphemes (alphabets) (Fig. 1a)
11m
(LASS) 8–11, Spelling tests (Fig. 2b)
2001 [12] Counting the number of words in a spoken sentence
 Cognitive Skill Task V. RESULTS
Visually distinguishing between letters (Fig. 1b),
Visual
words (Fig. 2a), and numbers
The students’ performance in the tests is summarized in
processing
Copying text Tables IV and V. Most children performed well; however, a
Letter and word recognition in English and few children performed poorly. Based on their performance in
Rapid naming Malayalam, number recognition, naming familiar the screening test (Fig. 2a, 2b), we recommended two boys
skills objects such as cat, house, elephant, etc., when (Grade 2, Private school) for further assessment by a dyslexia
shown pictures of the same (Fig. 2c) specialist. One of the two boys was examined and diagnosed
Drawing shapes such as straight lines, triangles, and
Motor skills circles
as dyslexic. We also suspected that another boy (in Grade 2,
Copying text Private school) had learning difficulties. Further, a girl
studying in Grade 2, Government school, had severe learning
difficulties and was unable to answer any question. Her scores
In addition to the tasks listed in Table II, the students were have been excluded from the analysis (Fig 3 and Table VI).
asked to write all Malayalam words they could think of to see
how well they spelt words they knew. Most tasks were timed.
Written tests were administered to screen groups of
children in batches. Students in grades 2, 3, and 4 were tested;
slightly different versions of the test were used for each grade.
From our experience, we learnt that the test should be short
enough so that the assessment can be completed in
approximately 35 minutes; the children would get fatigued by
longer tests which adversely affected their performance.

Circle the alphabet that your teacher says:

A D G Y U I O P R F Fig. 2. (a) Copy of Student A’s (Grade 2, Private school) answersheet

(a)

Circle the letter in the row that is the same as the letter in the square:

k b d h k

(b)

Fig. 1. Questions from the dyslexia screening test. The question shown in
Fig. 1(a) assesses if the child is able to correctly correlate phonemes to
graphemes. The examiner called out an alphabet and also repeated a
word beginning with the same alphabet. The child was expected to circle
the alphabet. Fig. 1(b) assesses if the child is able to visually distinguish
between English lowercase alphabets.

B. Administering the Test

The screening test was administered thrice at a private
school and thrice at a Government school; some details are
provided in Table III. The two schools were in Haripad Town,
less than 10 km apart. Many children studying at the
Government school were from economically disadvantaged
families. English was the primary language of instruction in
both schools.
Fig. 2. (b) Copy of Student B’s (Grade 2, Private school) responses in
The purpose of the assessment was explained to the English and Malayalam spelling tests, with the correct word next to the
students; they were instructed to work independently and not student’s attempt. The examiner called out each word twice and spoke a
to copy the work of others, they were reassured that their sentence using the word.
scores would be kept confidential and poor performance
would not be punished, and they were encouraged to attempt After grading the tests, we contacted the school teachers
all tasks as best as they could. The students performed best and asked them for the list of students who were performing
when all instructions were spoken in Malayalam. poorly in school. The list given by the teachers of the private
 TABLE I. ADMINISTERING DYSLEXIA SCREENING TESTS

Test Number of Students Age of Students a

Date School Grade
No. Boys Girls Total Minimum Maximum Average
1. 14 Feb 2017 Private school 20 12 32 6 9 7.6 2

2. 14 Feb 2017 Private school 22 16 38 5 9 7.3 2

3. 29 July 2017 Private school 23 6 29 7 10 8.7 3 and 4

4. 4 Aug 2017 Government school 7 4 11 6 8 6.9 2

5. 4 Aug 2017 Government school 6 10 16 7 8 7.9 3

6. 4 Aug 2017 Government school 3 6 9 9 10 9.2 4

a.
Based on the ages provided by the students on their answer sheets

TABLE II. SUMMARIZING RESULTS OF DYSLEXIA SCREENING TESTS

Students’ Scores c No. of

Task b
100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0 Students d
Identifying English uppercase alphabets spoken by
99 students 6 students – – – – 105
the examiner (Fig. 1a)
Identifying English lowercase alphabets spoken by
97 5 3 – – – 105
the examiner
Writing English alphabets spoken by the examiner
97 4 3 1 – – 105
(both upper and lowercase)
Spelling test in English (Fig. 2b) 73 8 10 7 4 1 103

Spelling test in Malayalam (Fig. 2b) 45 21 15 10 8 4 103

Distinguishing between English uppercase
131 – – 2 – 1 134
alphabets
Distinguishing between English lowercase
125 5 – 2 1 1 134
alphabets (Fig. 1b)
Distinguishing between English words (Fig. 2a) 119 11 1 – 1 1 133

Distinguishing between Malayalam alphabets 63 1 – – – – 64

Distinguishing between Malayalam words 62 1 1 – – – 64

Distinguishing between numerals 35 – – – – – 35

Writing names of objects shown in pictures (Fig.
55 3 3 2 – 1 64
2c)
Copying basic shapes such as circles, squares,
25 24 5 8 2 – 64
triangles, etc.
Rhyming words (English) 14 19 24 11 2 3 73

Counting number of words in a spoken sentence 4 24 23 8 3 7 69

b.
Refer Table II
c.
The entries specify the number of students who obtained scores of 100%, 80%, 60%, 40%, 20% and 0 respectively.
d.
The number of students who attempted the task. Not all tasks were administered during all tests. Also, sometimes a child did not attempt a task.

TABLE III. MISTAKES

No. of No. of
Distinguishing Between Different English alphabets Distinguishing Between English words
Students Students
Selected g instead of p 1 Selected an intead of on 1

Selected q instead of p 1 Selected dus intead of bus 1

Selected w instead of n 1 Selected sud instead of bus 1

Selected flipped k e instead of k 1 Selected bus with a flipped s instead of bus 1

Selected flipped a instead of a 2 Selected gril instead of girl 1

Selected flipped n instead of n 2 Selected lirg instead of girl 1

e.
As depicted in Fig. 1b
 TABLE IV.
No. of
Distinguishing Between Different English alphabets
Students
Selected C instead of G
Selected M instead of V
school included (but was not limited to) all students who
performed poorly in the dyslexia screening test. According to
the teachers of the Government school, only the girl referred
to in the preceding paragraph had been experiencing
difficulties in learning.
Fig. 2. (c) Copy of Student C’s (Grade 2, Government school) answersheet.
The students were instructed to write the names of the objects in
Malayalam.
The students’ total scores are summarized by the
histogram in Fig. 3.
VI. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
A. Identifying Children at Risk of Dyslexia
Two boys (Grade 2, Private school) performed poorly in
the following tasks:
• Visually distinguishing between letters (Fig. 1b, both
uppercase and lowercase in the English language) and
words (Fig. 2a)
• Spelling tests in English and Malayalam
• Copying text (handwriting was very poor, e.g. Fig. 2b)
With reference to the histogram in Fig. 3, the two boys
mentioned in the preceding paragraph scored less than 4/10.
Next, two boys from Grade 2, Government school (test scores:
4.00 and 4.06) received almost perfect scores in tests of visual
MISTAKES (CONTINUED)
No. of
Distinguishing Between English words
Students
1 Selected pats instead of past 1
1 Selected stap instead of past 1
Fig. 3. Students’ scores
discrimination (for which no prior teaching is required), but
low scores in spelling tests (where prior teaching is needed).
To address the possibility that they hadn’t received adequate
instruction prior to testing, we propose to try to teach them
reading and spelling and reevaluate them after a few weeks.
B. Analysing the Students’ Responses
In the first two tests, we attempted to have the children
count and write the number of words in sentences spoken by
the examiner. However, most children did not comprehend the
task, and we excluded it from subsequent tests.
In the English spelling tests, the students performed better
when the word meaning was explained in Malayalam. Many
children performed poorly when asked to decide whether or
not pairs of English words rhymed. We intend to use
Malayalam words in future screening tests.
C. Evaluating the Dyslexia Screening Test
The two questions that need to be answered are:
1. Are the children assessed as dyslexics on the basis of
the screening test indeed dyslexic?
2. Are there dyslexic children who perform well in the
screening test?
So far, we have recommended two boys for further
assessment by dyslexia specialists. Of these, one boy has been
examined and certified dyslexic by a psychologist. To our
knowledge, the other boy has not yet visited a psychologist.
We intend to arrange for a dyslexia specialist to examine all
children identified as possible dyslexics on the basis of the
screening test, both for the child’s benefit and also to find an
answer to the first question.
 To find an answer to the second question, we have
obtained permission from school authorities of the two schools
to spend non-instructional working days (e.g. the first, third,
and fifth Saturday of every month) tutoring all primary school
children who exhibit reading/learning difficulties in school.
During the course of these tutoring sessions, we hope to
identify any child who might be dyslexic and yet have
performed well in the screening test.
It is possible that our set of screening tests was effective in
detecting dyslexia in younger children or children in lower
grades; we may need to refine the screening tests for higher
grade children.
D. Necessity of Standardized Screening Tests for India
The following observations indicate a need for screening
tests specifically designed for Indian children:
(1) The children attempted several tasks only after the
instructions were repeated in Malayalam.
(2) The children, particularly those from the Government
school, were unfamiliar with many common English
words, such as stick and slid, and attempted the spelling
tests only when the word meaning was explained in
Malayalam.
(3) Both the boys identified ‘at risk of dyslexia’ clearly had
difficulties in visual discrimination. Since Indian
languages have complex scripts, visual processing deficits
may contribute substantially to dyslexia in Indian
languages and should be identified by the screening test.
E. Gender Difference in Test Scores
We observed a significant gender difference in test scores,
with girls scoring better than boys (Table VI).
TABLE III. GENDER DIFFERENCE IN TEST SCORES
Standard
Gender Mean T p-value
Deviation
Boys 5.99 1.07
-3.0592 0.001
Girls 6.52 0.91
VII. CONCLUSIONS
The study reported in this paper is part of a larger research
effort to diagnose and remediate dyslexia in India. The
findings of this preliminary study may be summarized as:
(1) Screening tests can be effective in detecting dyslexia.
(2) The tests should include spelling tests and tests on visually
distinguishing between different alphabets and words.
(3) There is a need for tests designed specifically for Indian
school children. India is a multilingual country with at
least twelve scripts, and we may need different screening
tests for different Indian languages.
(4) Different tests should be designed for children of different
ages/studying in different grades.
(5) Efforts should be directed towards developing
scientifically-validated, norm-referenced screening tests
for the Indian population.
Acknowledgment
This work derives its direction and inspiration from the
Chancellor of our University, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi
(Amma). The work is funded by the Department of Science
and Technology – Cognitive Sciences Research Initiative
(DST-CSRI), Government of India (Grant: SR/CSI/121/2013).
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