Testing SEND and EAL students
SEND accommodations
PhAB and PhAB2 are intended for use with children whose literacy progress is causing concern.
It is crucial to establish that the child can hear the stimuli used in the tests. If there are concerns about a child’s hearing these should be investigated as a priority.
In some instances children with special educational needs may require adaptations to allow them to adequately access a test. Any such accommodations should not influence the intentions of each subtest.
If a child is know to experience difficulties with visual stress, then adjustments, such as photocopying onto the correct coloured paper, should be made.
It may be appropriate to provide breaks between subtests for younger children or those who experience difficulties with attention.
Testing EAL students
‘Native-like’ familiarity with the phonology of a new language should be developed within a much shorter period than is required to develop the deeper level processing skills required for cognitive academic language proficiency. Therefore, provided children have sufficient understanding of the language of instruction, PhAB and PhaB2 may be used a valid and reliable measure of phonological skills.
When scoring, if a child’s responses are consistent with an accent then these are allowed and should be marked correctly.