New KARASIK test for the assessment of reading skills in Russian

Our previous study on the formation of reading skills in Russian-speaking early grade children revealed some gaps in the methods of diagnosis of reading difficulties. For now, there is only one standardized tool for assessment of reading skills in Russian, which is The Standardized Assessment of Reading Skills (SARS, Kornev 1997).

The present project is dedicated to the creation of a new standardized assessment tool of reading aloud skills called the KARASIK test. Firstly, this method would complement the existing one. Secondly, the topics covered in the new texts are more appealing to children nowadays. Thirdly, the new test contains information about the complexity of texts based on several psycholinguistic parameters. Finally, it can be easily used in schools and studies as a tablet App.

At the moment, we are working on the standardization of the KARASIK test, that is, we are collecting empirical data on how early grade children normally read materials of the new test. Namely, we collect data in grades 1-4. The data collection includes measuring non-verbal intelligence and measuring reading speed while reading aloud and reading comprehension.