Students with Reading Difficulties
Diagnostic Testing
A number of diagnostic reading tests are available in Finnish. Classroom teachers use some of these tests to screen groups, while special education teachers and school psychologists use other diagnostic tests to identify individual students’ reading difficulties. The most commonly used standardized reading test is the Comprehensive School Reading Test, which covers linguistic awareness, decoding, and reading comprehension for Grade 1 and Grades 2 to 6.25
Because municipalities, as education providers, and schools decide on their own assessment practices, some variation exists in diagnostic testing. At many, if not most, primary schools, students are tested in the first or second grade and in the fourth grade.
Instruction for Children with Reading Difficulties
Children participating in education are entitled to receive sufficient support for growth and learning as soon as the need for support becomes apparent. This may be in situations where students have been or are at risk of being left behind in their studies because of illness, learning difficulties, absence from school due to a difficult life situation, or some other reason. Categories of support include general, intensified, and special support. Depending on students’ needs, this support may be provided as remedial teaching, part time special education, enhanced support based on an individual learning plan, or full time special education. The national curriculum further stresses the importance of early recognition of learning difficulties, early support measures, different means of support, and cooperation with students’ parents.26,27
In the case of minor reading difficulties, a classroom teacher may give remedial instruction to students or ask the special education teacher for a consultation. When students have more severe or more persistent reading difficulties, a special education teacher steps in to evaluate the nature of the difficulties and provide part time special education within the regular classroom or, more commonly, in individual or small group sessions. If these support measures are inadequate, students may receive enhanced support or be transferred to full time special education, depending on individual teaching and learning plans.
In 2015 in Grades 1 to 6, approximately 7 percent of students in basic education received general support, 6 percent received intensified support, and 15 percent received special support. Almost twice as many boys as girls received some form of support.28 At the primary level, reading and writing difficulties were the second most common reason after speech disorders for part time special education. 29