Leesproblemen in het voortgezet onderwijs en de volwassenheid

Reading problems at the secondary scool level and in adulthood. In secondary education and following educational trajectories, it is assumed that the basic skills of reading and spelling are mastered. However, this is not always true. Students with persistent problems in reading and spelling may experience substantial obstructions of their career at school and in the society. To get a picture of the severity of decoding problems in secondary education and later, norm-referenced tests have to be used. At the level of primary education and the start of secondary education, tests and norms are available, but norms are missing for the last classes of secondary education and adulthood. In the present normative study, three reading tests (EMT, Klepel and DMT) have been given to a large sample of 15-16 year old students, and to a group of adults, together with a test of verbal competence (subtest Analogies of the WAIS). Descriptive statistics are presented, as well as general norms and norms according to educational level. Use of the norms is illustrated in groups of adults with or without reading problems, and by application of a variety of selection criteria on the normative group. The norms enable the user to detect reading level and severity of reading problems at the age of 15 and upwards.