Diagnostics of written language skills in students at secondary level I - adaptation of the Norwegian test procedure Dysmate and normalization for German-speaking countries

Project team: M.-C. Vierbuchen in cooperation with Dr. Rebecca Schumacher (University of Potsdam), Prof. Dr. Trude Nergård-Nilssen (University of Tromsö), InklusionDigital GmbH (inklusion-digital.de) and Literate AS

Project description

• Aim:
  • Transfer and adaptation of the internationally used Dysmate test procedure for the early identification of students at risk of reading and spelling difficulties in secondary level I (Nergård-Nilssen & Friborg, 2021)
• Description of the test method:
  • Standardized and two-stage (screening & follow-up)
  • Suitable for testing in classroom settings at secondary level I of all school types
  • Digital implementation and automated evaluation
• Current status:
  • Test procedure was translated and adapted into German, taking into account language-specific orthographic features and checking linguistic criteria
• Projects:
  • Generation of norms in a large-scale piloting and norming study (validity of the Norwegian test version has been empirically proven (Nergård-Nilssen & Friborg, 2021)
  • Development of information videos on the topics of diagnostics and support for teachers in the normalization study and for later use in schools
• Research-related questions:
  • Can the Dysmate test, which has been adapted from Norwegian, also be used in German to reliably differentiate between students at secondary level I with and without a risk of reading and spelling difficulties by creating profiles of different subscales?
  • Do German-speaking students at risk of reading and spelling difficulties at secondary level I show similar profiles to students of the same age in Norway and England?