Intervention for Dyslexia - The British Dyslexia Association

who had been successfully discontinued, but only 40% of the 651 children who had
been followed up at this stage.
5.5.1 Long-term follow-ups of Reading Recovery in England
In the London and Surrey study described in Section 5.4.1 a long-term follow-up was
carried out 3½ years after intervention, the average chronological age of the children at
that stage being 10 years 3 months. In the analysis it was necessary to control for social
disadvantage (based on free school meals status), as this had become a significant
predictor of literacy progress. Testing at this stage comprised NFER-Nelson Group
Reading Test 6–12 and Young’s Parallel Spelling Test. It was found that both the
Reading Recovery and the Phonological Training intervention groups were still slightly
ahead of between-school controls in reading (by about 3 months in reading age) but the
differences were not significant and the effect sizes were small (0.15 for Reading
Recovery and 0.21 for Phonological Training). In fact, there were no significant
differences between the Reading Recovery children and controls (both within-school and
between-school) on any measures. However, on the measures of spelling and overall
reading/spelling the Phonological Training group was found to be significantly better
than the between-school controls (effect sizes 0.26–0.27). Overall, most of the children
in the study by Hurry and Sylva (1998, 2007) were still behind national norms for
reading and spelling at age 10, with an average reading age of 8 years 6 months and an
average spelling age of 8 years 9 months. Clearly, therefore, in the long term, neither
Reading Recovery nor this particular Phonological Training intervention had allowed the
children to overcome their poor start in reading or spelling.
Every Child a Reader (2008, p.16) provided some information on children from the ECaR
in London study one year after the intervention ceased. In July 2007 all the children who
could be traced were re-tested – 77 who had received ECaR and 109 comparison
children. Comparisons of the previous scores of those who were traced and those who
were not showed that those traced were representative of the original samples. Also,
the Key Stage 1 assessment results for all the children in the original samples in the
London study were obtained, from the DCSF. The ECaR children were reading at ageappropriate
levels – an average reading age of 7:9 – whereas the average reading age
for the comparison children was 6:9. In the end-of-key stage assessments 86% of the
ECaR children achieved Level 2 or above in reading, compared to 84% of children
nationally. Also, 77% achieved Level 2b or above in reading, compared with 71%
nationally and 57% of the comparison children. In writing, 83% of the ECaR children
achieved Level 2 or above, compared to 80% of children nationally. It should be noted
that these KS1 results for the children in the ECaR project in London were distinctly
better than those for all Reading Recovery children in England and Wales in the same
year. The following figures are taken from the Reading Recovery annual report for the
UK and Republic of Ireland, 2006-07 (Douëtil, 2007a, Table 6.1, p.19; although the
heading of the Table refers to ‘UK and Republic of Ireland’, the data apply only to
England and Wales). Of the 1,207 such children, 72% achieved Level 2 or above in
reading (cf. 86% in the London study, 84% nationally); 43% achieved Level 2b or above
in reading (cf. 77% in the London study, 71% nationally); in writing, 60% achieved
Level 2 or above (cf. 83% in the London study, 80% nationally). Clearly, for some
reason greater success was being achieved in the London study than in Reading
Recovery across the whole of England and Wales. It may be that the fresh, and
refreshed, training provided within ECaR in London had particularly enthused the
teachers involved and therefore boosted their pupils’ achievements. However that may
be, the figures just quoted provide a background for the next section.
110 Intervention for Dyslexia