A novel test battery to diagnose a specific learning disorder in reading/writing in Luxembourg’s multilingual education setting

The main language of instruction is typically used when diagnosing a specific learning disorder in reading/writing. In Luxembourg, the language used at the time of diagnostic assessment (typically 3rd grade) is German. However, approximately two-thirds of children attending grade 3 do not speak German or Luxembourgish at home (MENJE & SCRIPT, 2022). Differences in language background have been shown to impact children’s (German) reading comprehension (Martini et al., 2021) and complicate the diagnostic process (Ugen et al., 2021).
We have developed and validated an extensive reading/writing test battery with 750 third-graders. The battery is adapted to the Luxembourgish multilingual context and takes children’s language background into consideration. This is crucial to reduce over- and underidentification of learning disorders in children from different language backgrounds (Martini, et al 2021, Ugen et al, 2021). We will present an overview of the subtests within three domains (precursors, reading, writing) included in the test and the normed reference groups.