Scarlett Gaffey | The ACT is holding kids back from their right to read well

For parents who are finding out that their child needs additional support, this information comes far too late. It takes four times as many resources to resolve a reading difficulty by Year 4 than it would have taken in Year 1.

Why can't parents find out earlier about their child's reading and writing skills?

ACT public schools use a twice-yearly assessment (February and October) in kindergarten called BASE. This assessment is not an effective test as it doesn't test a child's ability to decode words. What is decoding?

It is the essential skill of sounding out a word, as in 'p'-'a'-'t', then blending those sounds together to say 'pat'. After a child has decoded a word a number of times, they will then just "know" the word (and similar words) when they look at it (this is called orthographic mapping).

But children can also read words by memorising them. However, this is an inefficient skill as eventually their memory will max out and they will struggle to learn new words.

To effectively assess if a child has decoding skills, you must use unfamiliar or nonwords to ensure that they haven't memorised them. The Year 1 Phonics Check is an example of a short check that includes nonwords, such as 'vap or 'jound'.

The Year 1 Phonics Check is a free seven-minute check that has been rolled out universally across schools in South Australia and New South Wales, with nearly every other state (other than the ACT) also employing diagnostic screening instruments for students in Year 1.

The ACT government recently reiterated during an Estimates hearing that the ACT will not introduce the Year 1 Phonics Check because BASE testing is undertaken in kindergarten.

This is poor practice. Best practice is universal screening three times a year from Kindergarten to Year 2, and preferably all the way through to and including the first year of high school. This ensures all children are on track and assists in identifying those children who require additional support.

If your child is in Year 1 and you are worried about their reading then you can access the Year 1 Phonics Check on the Literacy Hub website that has been funded by the federal government.

Good assessment gives good information which then informs good teaching practice and support for children who need it. Unfortunately, we know many schools in the ACT don't teach children to read in a way that aligns with the scientific research on reading instruction.

It sounds silly, but children are being taught to guess words, rather than to sound them out based on letter sounds. This approach encourages the memorisation of words instead of decoding them, which is not beneficial for developing strong reading skills. While this approach will work for some children, it doesn't work for at least 25 per cent.

MORE OPINION:

As a speech pathologist, my heart sinks every time a child walks into my office who is an instructional casualty of the education system. These children's brains work just fine, they simply have not been taught well enough.

Every parent wants their children to read and write well. However, we cannot ensure that children in the ACT access their right to read unless Canberra, as a community, makes this a priority. So talk to your child's school principal and school board about what measures your school is taking to lift literacy rates.

And most importantly, pay attention to your child's NAPLAN results, even though these results come late they are a source of information to understand how your child's performance compares to their peers'.

If your child is reading well, but spelling poorly, that may also be an indication they have not developed an appropriate understanding of letter-sound relationships. While it would have been easier to remediate this when they were younger, it is never too late.